The Headmaster's Wager

By: Vincent Lam

Narrated by: Feodor Chin

From Giller Prize winner, internationally acclaimed, and best-selling author Vincent Lam comes a superbly crafted, highly suspenseful, and deeply affecting novel set against the turmoil of the Vietnam War.

Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon. He is also a bon vivant, a compulsive gambler, and an incorrigible womanizer. He is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of the Chen Academy. He is fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, and quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, choosing instead to read the faces of his opponents at high-stakes mahjong tables. But when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage, and Laing Jai, a son born to them on the eve of the Tet offensive. Percival's new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further and further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see.

Blessed with intriguingly flawed characters moving through a richly drawn historical and physical landscape, The Headmaster's Wager is a riveting story of love, betrayal, and sacrifice.

©2012 Vincent Lam (P)2018 Doubleday Canada

Critic reviews

2012, Governor General's Literary Awards-Fiction, Finalist

"The Headmaster's Wager brings to life a vibrant, unforgettable character who struggles for love and survival in a richly detailed evocation of wartime Vietnam. Mr. Lam's tale moved me even as it led through an exotic landscape filled with unthinkable violence, passionate longing, and unbreakable bonds of paternal love. His characters and their story will remain with you." (Mitchell Kaplan, author of By Fire, By Water)

"The Headmaster's Wager does what only the very best literature can do: It provides characters you care about deeply (even as they break your heart) and has plot twists you don't see coming but then couldn't imagine any other way. Vincent Lam has written a mature and rewarding novel of the highest quality, and Percival Chen will remain with you long after the final page. This is an exceptional book." (Andrew Davidson, author of The Gargoyle)