Interspersed among Nee’s stories (which are not presented chronologically) are beautifully wrought tales of a doctor-missionary in old Siam, whose Western faith morphs into enlightenment with the help of witch doctors, cholera, and despair. When the old woman’s son comes home from abroad, he and Nee begin a disastrous affair. In another, Nee goes to work managing a high-rise condo, the lobby of which is a colonial-style Thai house-the heart of this novel-once owned by one of the building’s wealthy elderly residents.
In one story, Nee is estranged from her sister Nok after she discovers Nok’s restaurant in Japan buys its Thai ingredients from a corrupt ex-colonel. Loosely woven narratives follow Nee, a girl whose lover is killed during anti-government protests in 1973, as she navigates life in a melancholy city bleeding out its ancient culture. Born in Thailand, he currently splits his time between Bangkok and Brooklyn.Sudbanthad’s meditative debut drifts back and forth through time, evoking Bangkok past, present, and future. Among the publications to which he has contributed are: Esquire, Newsweek, Freeman’s, Guernica, Electric Literature, The Millions, and The Morning News. Sudbanthad has been honored with fellowships from MacDowell and the New York Foundation for the Arts. It has also been named a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Casa delle Letterature Bridge Book Award, and the Edward Stanford Award.
The novel, published by Riverhead Books (US) and Sceptre (UK), has been hailed as “ambitious and sweeping” ( Esquire) and “a remarkable debut” ( Financial Times) with a narrative that “recreates the experience of living in Thailand’s aqueous climate so viscerally that you can feel the water rising around your ankles” ( Washington Post). Pitchaya Sudbanthad is the author of Bangkok Wakes to Rain, which was selected as a notable book of the year by The New York Timesand The Washington Post.
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