On November 12, 1965, Walter Cronkite announced that civilian aid worker Peter Hunting had been killed by Vietcong agents in the Mekong Delta. For America, it was a loss that reverberated with portents of coming catastrophes. For Hunting’s fifteen-year-old sister, Jill, it was the beginning of a lifetime of questions:
What had Pete’s years in Vietnam been like—what had he seen and experienced?
What had he come to believe about his role there in the midst of sharply rising tensions?
Why had two men reportedly posing as Pete’s friends lured him to his death?

For decades, it seemed that these questions would remain forever unanswered, with Pete’s family struck silent by their overwhelming grief and his many letters home destroyed in a basement flood. When, in 2004, boxes upon boxes of Pete’s letters suddenly emerged, it was the beginning of a long process of historical detective work and an emotional re-acquaintance with a brother lost too soon.

In this sweeping, sharply honest memoir, Jill Hunting traces Pete’s journey from an idealistic college student to a savvy member of the International Voluntary Services—digging wells, laying brick, teaching English, and writing witty letters home describing the small absurdities of everyday life in a foreign land. The book includes a reading group guide.