Staff Pick
Immersive doesn't even begin to describe it: I sunk into this book — I almost felt like I drowned in it. It's comprised of short stories that blur into larger narratives, glimpses that add up to a dazzling whole. By referencing Bangkok's past and present and imagining its future, Sudbanthad creates a landscape that feels vividly three-dimensional. It's a substantial read, but incredibly rewarding. And although it's sure to draw comparisons to Cloud Atlas, it belongs in a league of its own. Bangkok Wakes to Rain is the perfect introduction to a staggering new talent! Recommended By Lauren P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
"Recreates the experience of living in Thailand's aqueous climate so viscerally that you can feel the water rising around your ankles." --Ron Charles, Washington Post "Important, ambitious, and accomplished." --Mohsin Hamid, New York Times bestselling author of Exit West
A missionary doctor pines for his native New England even as he succumbs to the vibrant chaos of nineteenth-century Siam. A post-World War II society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting her solitary fate. A jazz pianist in the age of rock, haunted by his own ghosts, is summoned to appease the house's resident spirits. In the present, a young woman tries to outpace the long shadow of her political past. And in a New Krungthep yet to come, savvy teenagers row tourists past landmarks of the drowned old city they themselves do not remember. Time collapses as these lives collide and converge, linked by the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibious, ever-morphing capital itself. Bangkok Wakes to Rain is an elegy for what time erases and a love song to all that persists, yearning, into the unknowable future.