A handful of books help explain how a small Mekong town became the capital of one of the world's most bombed countries, and what daily life looks like after that.
Christopher Robbins, The Ravens — The definitive account of the CIA-led "Secret War" in Laos. Robbins interviewed dozens of the American pilots who flew unmarked planes for the Royal Lao Air Force in the 1960s and early 70s. Essential reading before you visit COPE.
Colin Cotterill, The Coroner's Lunch — A gentle, funny mystery set in 1970s Vientiane just after the communist takeover. The protagonist, Dr. Siri Paiboun, is a reluctant elderly coroner pressed into service by the new regime. Cotterill captures the absurdities of post-revolutionary Laos better than any history book. There are now over a dozen in the series.
Joshua Kurlantzick, A Great Place to Have a War — A more recent journalistic history of the Secret War, focused on its long-term effect on Lao society. Less elegiac than Robbins, more analytical.
Norman Lewis, A Dragon Apparent — Lewis travelled across French Indochina in 1950, just as the colonial era was collapsing. The Laos chapters describe a Vientiane that was barely a town — sleepy, hot, and stranded between empires. Read it alongside the war histories for context.
Mai Della-Picca, Mother's Beloved — A collection of short stories by the Lao poet Outhine Bounyavong, in bilingual translation. Quiet, domestic vignettes of village life that haven't changed much in the rural areas around Vientiane.