A Model American

Literary novel set in Cambodia just before the triumph of the Khmer Rouge, by the author of A Rope of Sand

The shell of the novel is an adventure story, but its kernel is an exploration of the national attitudes and personal qualities that shape people's responses to world affairs.

A parable of modern-day American interventionism, this story literally pitches its protagonists into the fray.

Much more than a mere jungle survival story . . . as page-turning adventure fiction, A MODEL AMERICAN scores highly. As a warning against the perils of continued globalisation, it deserves to be well read.

Elsie Burch Donald worked as an editor in London before becoming a novelist. Her most recent novel is A Rope of Sand. She divides her time between London and southwest France.

In early 1970 a small plane, en route to Angkor Wat, mysteriously disappears over the Cambodian jungle. Piloted by an American hippie, the passengers are Bill Bolton, a US businessman, his wife Marjorie, their guide a young Englishwoman, and a Cambodian 'old hand', a Frenchman. 
Stranded helplessly in the jungle, the westerners are found by local peasants, and taken to the relative safety of their own veritable Shangri La. Here, cut off from the outside world, they find an enchanting Buddhist world, full of laughter and festivals; a gentle, sensitive people without greed, violence, or too much work. 
As the party adjust to the lotus-eating culture, life presents excitement,pleasure - even love. And an opportunity to bring modern methods to a backward way of life. But a darker, brutal presence threatens to destroy their paradise. The Vietnam war is spilling across Cambodia's borders, and an insurgency is on the rise that will become the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia must change, but in whose image? 
Gripping and beautifully written, A Model American is a multi-dimensional parable showing the American character abroad and its effects when used to 'improve' an ancient, alien culture. For many, it will greatly resonate with what is happening in the world today.

Elsie Burch Donald

A perfect holiday read. Its absorbing narrative compels the reader to turn the pages, and yet its descriptive writing often invites re-reading for the sheer pleasure of the prose. Set in five countries (most spectacularly Egypt), and imbued with the spirit of Henry James, this nostalgic chronicle of a loss of innocence still draws reflective thought long after the book's conclusion.

Written with a light, deft touch that belies the emotional punch that it packs.

A ROPE OF SAND is beautifully constructed, delaying its shocks until the last possible moment. Period and place are conveyed with economy and sharpness, and the layering of ambiguities seems worthy not only of Henry James but of Elizabethe Bowen.

An ultimately tragic tale of sophomoric lust and snobbery.

You have to read on, and you can't ask for much more than that.

A chance encounter in a French town brings dark memories flooding back to fifty-five-year-old Kate. As a student at Sweet Briar College, Virginia in the 1950s, she joined a grand tour of Europe along with three classmates and their chaperone, Miss Grist. At the last minute, the mysterious and wealthy new girl, Olivia Hartfield, surprised them all by joining them. 
 
Revelling in the unparalleled freedom of the old world, Kate and her friends gradually form a privileged and sophisticated clique as, one by one, three intriguing but very different young men latch on to their party. But nobody is quite as they appear, and as facades crumble, this journey would prove eye-opening in ways the girls couldn't have possibly have imagined.On a remote outing a tragic and sinister event occurs.Now, thirty years later, the question is still open: what really happened that day?

Elsie Burch Donald

Praise for A Rope Of Sand

A perfect holiday read. Its absorbing narrative compels the reader to turn the pages, and yet its descriptive writing often invites re-reading for the sheer pleasure of the prose. Set in five countries (most spectac ...

Written with a light, deft touch that belies the emotional punch that it packs.

A ROPE OF SAND is beautifully constructed, delaying its shocks until the last possible moment. Period and place are conveyed with economy and sharpness, and the layering of ambiguities seems worthy not only of Henry ...

A perfect holiday read. Its absorbing narrative compels the reader to turn the pages, and yet its descriptive writing often invites re-reading for the sheer pleasure of the prose. Set in five countries (most spectac ...

Written with a light, deft touch that belies the emotional punch that it packs.

A ROPE OF SAND is beautifully constructed, delaying its shocks until the last possible moment. Period and place are conveyed with economy and sharpness, and the layering of ambiguities seems worthy not only of Henry ...

A perfect holiday read. Its absorbing narrative compels the reader to turn the pages, and yet its descriptive writing often invites re-reading for the sheer pleasure of the prose. Set in five countries (most spectac ...

Written with a light, deft touch that belies the emotional punch that it packs.

A ROPE OF SAND is beautifully constructed, delaying its shocks until the last possible moment. Period and place are conveyed with economy and sharpness, and the layering of ambiguities seems worthy not only of Henry ...

Books by Elsie Burch Donald

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