Highways to a War — C.J. Koch

“A gripping tale . . . A convincing, page-turning evocation of recent history.” -- The New York Times
 
Ray Barton travels to war-ravaged Southeast Asia to search for his missing friend Michael Langford, a brilliant, risk-taking combat photographer who was stolen into Khmer Rouge Cambodia on a mysterious mission and disappeared. The search illuminates Langford's heroism, his fierce loyalties, and the personal highways he has traveled to war. Langford's empathy for the brave but poorly commanded Cambodian troops and his love for a young Cambodian woman have led him in the end to put down the camera and take up the gun in a foreign struggle he had made his own.
 
Koch richly evokes Indochina -- from the deceptively tranquil rice paddies of South Vietnam to the corrupt, doomed pink-and-white city of Phnom Penh. Highways to a War is a story of intense relationships forged in a dangerous and hallucinatory land that continues to haunt the American soul.
 
“An absorbing, deeply moving . . . tale of love and heroism. . . . The evocation of the Cambodian landscape . . . is truly haunting.” -- Kirkus Reviews
 
“Highways to a War ranks among the best of the . . . literature that has come out of the agony of the wars in Southeast Asia.” -- The Orlando Sentinel