The Girl in the Picture - by Denise Chong (Paperback)

About the Book

The world will never forget the 1972 Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of nine-year-old Kim Phuc, running naked in terror after a napalm strike in Vietnam. Chong presents the timely, sensitive story of the "napalm girl" as she struggles to reclaim her life. of photos.

Book Synopsis

"More than any other Vietnam book in recent years, The Girl in the Picture confronts us with the ceaseless, ever-compounding casualties of modern warfare." --The San Francisco Chronicle

On June 8, 1972, nine-year-old Kim Phuc, severely burned by napalm, ran from her blazing village in South Vietnam and into the eye of history. Her photograph-one of the most unforgettable images of the twentieth century-was seen around the world and helped turn public opinion against the Vietnam War.

This book is the story of how that photograph came to be-and the story of what happened to that girl after the camera shutter closed. Award-winning biographer Denise Chong's portrait of Kim Phuc-who eventually defected to Canada and is now a UNESCO spokesperson-is a rare look at the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese point-of-view and one of the only books to describe everyday life in the wake of this war and to probe its lingering effects on all its participants.

Review Quotes

"An extraordinary piece of journalism." --The Baltimore Sun

"More than any other Vietnam book in recent years, The Girl in the Picture confronts us with the ceaseless, ever-compounding casualties of modern warfare." --The San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author

Denise Chong is the author of The Concubine's Children (Viking and Penguin), a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. She is the editor of The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women and lives in Ottawa, Ontario, with her husband and two children.