Laos, 1981: When an unofficial mailman drops off a strange bilingual diary, Dr. Siri is intrigued. Half is in Lao,

but the other half is in Japanese, which no one Siri knows can read; it appears to have been written during the Second

World War. Most mysterious of all, it comes with a note stapled to it: Dr. Siri, we need your help most urgently. But who

is “we,” and why have they left no return address?

To the chagrin of his wife and friends, who have to hear him read the diary out loud, Siri embarks on an investigation

by examining the text. Though the journal was apparently written by a kamikaze pilot, it is surprisingly dull. Twenty

pages in, no one has died, and the pilot never mentions any combat at all. Despite these shortcomings, Siri begins to

obsess over the diary’s abrupt ending … and the riddle of why it found its way into his hands. Did the kamikaze pilot

ever manage to get off the ground? To find out, he and Madame Daeng will have to hitch a ride south and uncover

some of the darkest secrets of the Second World War.