An American veteran who fought during the war in Vietnam will visit the Southeast Asian country later this week to introduce his book on war pain.

Wayne Karlin, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1963 to 1967 and engaged in the American war in Vietnam, is slated to appear at an exchange at 7:30 pm on Friday at art venue Tadioto, at 24 Tong Dan Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi.

Karlin, 70, will introduce to local readers his critically-acclaimed book, “Wandering Souls,” which delves into the relentless anguish a war veteran suffers when facing the family of a Vietnamese soldier whom he had killed during the war.

The book was released in Vietnam in 2010.   Karlin has risen to become one of the most noted authors who has dug deep into the lingering consequences incurred by war veterans and civilians in both Vietnam and the U.S.

Since the war ended in 1975, the author has returned to the former battlefield several times and has been involved in the translation and editing of many Vietnamese literary works, which are intended to tell the moving stories of insiders on both sides.

The works which Karlin edited or translated include “The Other Side of Heaven: Postwar Fiction by Vietnamese and American Writers,” “The Stars, the Earth, the River,” and “Behind the Red Mist.”

Some of Karlin’s books are “Marble Mountain,” “War Movies: Journeys to Vietnam,” “The Wished-For Country,” and “Prisoners.”

According to the College of Southern Maryland’s website, Karlin has claimed several American literary prizes including the 1999 Paterson Prize in Fiction, the 2005 Vietnam Veterans of American Excellence in Arts Award, and the 2013 Annual Faculty Excellence Award. 

The author was also one of the scriptwriters, served as a technical consultant, and acted in a feature film titled “Song of the Stork,” a Vietnamese-Singaporean co-production, which won awards at several film festivals in Europe and Asia.

In 2006, Karlin was consulting producer and writer for “Shared Weight,” a series of hour-long radio programs involving interviews with writers, filmmakers and artists in Vietnam, and journeys of reconciliation.

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