I'm just wondering if anyone here has read a decent book on modern Vietnam, by which I mean one which concentrates on the socio-economic and cultural changes of the last 10 years or so.

I'm not interested in stuff to do with the war, or even refugees, but more about returning Viet Kieu or the internal state of the country. Could be fiction or non-fiction, either will do.

Thanks in advance.

i dont know any book, but check on CIA fact book to know some up-to-date information

for returning viet kieu, most of them are not put on newspaper and stuff ... there is a list of those who returned and what they contributed/ are contributing to the country ... but you gotta learn vietnamese

Yeah, looking for something a bit more cultural, colourful and insightful than the CIA Factbook....

I can read Vietnamese okay, but everything I see online is so polarised, one way or another, that the facts are ignored in favour of polemic.

Finally found what I wanted!

It's a novel called 'Forward O Peasant' by a guy called Maclean J Storer and it looks like it was recently published (over here in Asia, anyway).

The first few chapters (that's as far as I've got) are extremely funny, especially at the expense of old-style Communism. I'll post a fuller update when I've finished it.

The book's website is here if anyone wants to check it out

hmm...when you said "Viet Kieu", I was thinking of a similar book title written in vietnamese by Nguyen Ngoc Ngan.
It's a fictional novel about a returnee and midlife crisis, etc.