Asian literature

Rart Eikkatheit's three worlds

by Win Lyovarin

Soldier, pimp or artist? 

What is Rart’s real nature? 

Is history repeating itself?

By the most inventive and versatile of Thai short story writers, 

a tale of social upheavals and human ambiguities 

that...

Cobra

by WANIT JARUNKIT-ANAN

 A man, a woman (or two) and ... a snake.

The national bestseller of 1987.

Behind the picture

by Seeboorapha

A 1930s Thai romance with a Japanese setting

and a political message

by one of the best stylists of Siam

The murder case of Tok Imam Storpa Karde

by Siriworn Kaewkan

Who killed the old imam, and why? 

Your guess is as good as theirs.  

The novel every Thai, 

everyone concerned with 

the situation in Thailand’s deep South, 

should read. If only to ponder 

on the country's...

A scattered world

by Siriworn Kaewkan

When some men are cursed with immortality, 

they endeavour to break the curse 

and, if successful, turn into sea animals.

A novel of magical realism and verbal magic 

set on the fault line of Islam and Buddhism...

Noblesse oblige

by Dorkmai Sot

Noble Wimon is twenty-one,

beautiful, rich, independent-minded

and a little conceited, but loved

by all and living a charmed life.

When disaster strikes, 

she must take care 

of her numerous siblings

almost single-handedly. ...

The 20 best novels of thailand

by Marcel Barang

Everything you need to know

about Thai literature, 

from its origins to Thai fiction today.

Literary criteria used in the selection

of the 20 best novels of the last century,

from The circus of life

to The white...

Lord of the land

by Wimon Sainimnuan

 Against a background of frenzied land speculation

where all sorts of dirty tricks are par for the course,

who of Abbot Nian and Kharm the Medium

will emerge as the Lord of the Land?

The increasingly

heated...

Khoak Phranang

by Wimon Sainimnuan

 What happens to common country folk 

when they are caught in the jaws 

of wayward religion and superstition?

This is what happens, at Khoak Phranang, 

the epicentre of rural Thailand in the 1990s.

A short,...

The Medium

by Wimon Sainimnuan

  One way out of crippling poverty 

is by putting yourself at the service

of the spirits of the land

– folk credulity will do the rest.

Thus is born the Medium,

pitting himself against unethical Buddhist monks...

Immortal

by Wimon Sainimnuan

 An ageing tycoon wants to achieve immortality 

by grafting his brain onto a younger body 

— until he is challenged by his very clone. 

At stake, there is more than the control of his business empire.

A Thai...

Mad dogs & Co

by Chart Korbjitti

Thai hippiedom in its 1980s heyday. 

First serialised in a women's magazine, 

yet another masterpiece by the author of

1982 SEA Write Award winning The Judgment

and 1994 SEA Write Award winning Time.

Venom

by Saneh Sangsuk

 A crippled boy plays with his puppets and dreams of glory

until the female cobra he disturbs by his show rushes at him.

The life-and-death struggle that follows has but a predictable end

– or has it?

This...

Ghosts

by SEINEE SAOWAPHONG

Sai Seema, a lawyer from the paddy fields, 

has his work cut out for him helping his farming relatives 

and convincing his lover's aristocratic parents 

that he deserves her hand. 

This prophetic, 1953 novel...

Time in a bottle

by PRAPHATSORN SEIWIKUN

This national bestseller, emblematic of the 1970s student generation,

explores the generation gap between parents and children

in a Bangkok middle-class family,

the pains of growing up

and tug-of-war between...

Wanlaya's love

by SEINEE SAOWAPHONG

Paris after the Second World War: 

the Left Bank, Montmartre and Picasso's dove. 

Wanlaya is a Thai music student 

with challenging ideas and challenged friends, 

all engaged in their own ways 

in a search...

Snakes

by Wimon Sainimnuan

Monks, murder, money, miracles and mystifications. 

Snakes galore and sleazy slitherings 

intertwined with scandal, suicide and rape 

in the central Thai village of Khoak Phranang 

– the first of a celebrated...

The field of the great

by MALAI CHOOPHINIT

 This vivid chronicle of an upcountry district in the heart of Siam 

is told through the rise of Ruen, an aspiring timber trader 

who leads a small community of farmers in its fight against nature 

and against...

Of time and tide

by ATSIRI THAMMACHOAT

Little people, simple lives, modest dreams,

traditional beliefs, petty fights, tragic accidents, 

and the dictates of the authorities: 

how fishermen alienate themselves from nature 

and lose their moorings...

The judgment

by Chart Korbjitti

This epoch-making novel, set in the rural central Thailand of the 1980s,

is a scathing satire and chilling endictment of modern society,

which makes heroes of 'fuckin' cheats'

and condemns upright citizens...