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  • Published: 29 July 2015
  • ISBN: 9780670078202
  • Imprint: Viking
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $32.99

R&R




John 'Nashville' Grant is an American military policeman in the R&R town of Vung Tau, tucked safely behind the front lines of the Vietnam War. Nashville knows how everything works: the army, the enemy, bars, secrets, men and women.

John 'Nashville' Grant is an American military policeman in the R&R town of Vung Tau, tucked safely behind the front lines of the Vietnam War. Nashville knows how everything works: the army, the enemy, bars, secrets, men and women. He's keeping the peace by keeping his head down and making the most of it.

His new partner is a tall man from a small town: Shorty, from Bendigo. Shorty knows nothing about anything, and he wishes people would stop mistaking that for stupidity.

When another MP shoots a corpse in a brothel, the delicate balance between the military police, South Vietnamese gangsters and the Viet Cong is upset. Nashville and his partner are drawn into the heart of the matter by their violent colleague Sergeant Caution, the obsequious landlord Moreau, the improbable entrepreneur Izzy Berger and the mysterious, omnipotent Mamasan. Events begin to force the pair to uphold the law and eventually to take it into their own hands.

'Mark Dapin is a true original.' Christos Tsiolkas

'Forget whatever film you've seen or book you've ever read about Vietnam because Mark Dapin's R&R will blow your mind away. Apocalypse Now meets Good Morning Vietnam, R&R is hilarious, poignant and incredibly powerful. Believe you me, this is a bloody masterpiece.' Rob Minshull, ABC Queensland

  • Published: 29 July 2015
  • ISBN: 9780670078202
  • Imprint: Viking
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $32.99

About the author

Mark Dapin

Mark Dapin is the author of the novels King of the Cross and Spirit House. King of the Cross won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, and Spirit House was long listed for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year and the Royal Society for Literature's Ondaatje Prize. His recent work of military history, The Nashos' War, has been widely acclaimed. He is a PhD candidate at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Also by Mark Dapin

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Praise for R&R

Apocalypse Now meets Good Morning Vietnam, R&R is a modern Catch-22 by an author who writes with boots on his fingers. Prepare for a kicking because R&R is hilarious, poignant and incredibly powerful ... Terribly tragic and frighteningly funny, Mark Dapin has written another modern masterpiece.

Rob Mishull, ABC Queensland

Bracingly alive with a heady mixture of bawdy humour and raw masculine energy... Dapin writes with tremendous swagger.

Caroline Baum, Booktopia

Awards & recognition

Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel

Shortlisted  •  2016  •  Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel