I’ve read a number of very good books on Thailand and still have a fair amount that I’d like to read, but overall I’m surprised at a relative lack of things to read here, considering how big and popular a country it is. A good chunk of what I want to read is out of print and hard to find. Maybe India (where I’ve spent most of the past decade) has spoiled me in the book department. I feel that after a few more visits to Thailand I’ll have exhausted my supply of books that interest me and will be left with academic history articles and trashy fiction about bar dancers. One of those isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I’ll leave you to wonder which.
While I may be at risk of running out of good Thailand books to read in the next half decade, you probably aren’t, so none of that really matters. I’ve got a lot of good recommendations for you in every category and will continue to update this on future trips. I also hope that the Thai translation scene picks up a little more. I love browsing Thai bookstores with my Google Translator app open and looking at the local books. How good any of it is, I don’t know, but I see a lot of Thai books, both fiction and non-fiction, that look interesting and cover material that I never see in the stuff that comes out in English (I want someone to translate Wisit Sasanatieng’s Ayutthaya swordsman novel). Thai book covers are really awesome, too. Browsing the local book stores is a recommended activity when you’re in Thailand.
I try to buy books before I come to Thailand. Though Thai books in Thailand are very cheap, English books tend to be pretty expensive, more than they’d cost if getting them from Amazon in the U.S. or in India (where I usually come from). Still, there are books I’ve found at local bookstores on each trip that I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise and are probably pretty hard to find abroad, and I’m happy to support the local book stores when I can.
Bangkok has some nice giant book stores like Kinokuniya and Asia Books (Kinokuniya stores are nicer and grander but I’m really happy with some of my discoveries at Asia Books too), and Bangkok and Chiang Mai have some nice mostly English language independent stores (clustered in touristy/expat areas, and I’d expect a few other expat heavy places like Phuket to have them as well), usually with a small Thailand section.
In most of the country you won’t find a lot of English books, but you can still use Shopee, which is the closest thing they have to Amazon and where the books are usually cheaper than in the stores. I find their website annoying, though, and their search feature sucks. Usually googling “shopee” and the name of the book I want works better, though it’s still inconsistent. Sometimes I only find the books I want in the related books section on Shopee. The most value I’ve gotten out of Shopee, though, is in browsing Thai books and translating the descriptions. That’s been fun. My wife really likes Shopee for things I don’t understand like clothes, jewelry, cutesy stickers, slick looking but cheap Chinese-made blenders that break after a month, etc.
For further resources, I don’t know of anyone who writes about Thailand books regularly, but I found one great list from 2007, obviously out of date but still useful, on the Fodors message board. It’s the second comment by someone named glorialf. I want to track them down and get an updated list.
As for interesting local publishers, River Books and Silkworm are two that I’ve taken note of. They both have a mix of everything, a bit of fiction, non-fiction on obscure subjects, etc.
Moving onto my recommendations, I’ve broken this up into four sections:
Non-Fiction
Translated Thai-Language Fiction
Thai Folk Stories, Myths, Legends, Epic Poems, Etc
English Language Fiction Set in Thailand
Any recommendations in any categories are appreciated.
Also, this isn’t reading material, but since I have no better place to write about this, I also want to give a special mention here to the Bangkok Podcast (website here, I just listen in the podcast app on my iPhone). I don’t spend much time listening to podcasts but every time I’m in Thailand I listen to a number of episodes and always enjoy them. The hosts are smart guys, knowledgeable about Thailand, and are entertaining speakers. Whenever I’m back in Thailand, I’m always happy to get back to the podcast.
A lot of episodes are very lightweight, with the hosts mainly just shooting the breeze about the city/country, and I always enjoy this even if it’s not high level stuff. I like listening to them talk about different neighborhoods and shopping at 7/11 and whatever else. They also have many episodes where they go deeper into specific topics, often with guests. Not all of the topics interest me, but there were some I loved, especially the history episodes, which have been a great introduction and review for me. Notable guests have included Chris Baker, and there was an interesting series of episodes with historian duo Paul and Yuangrat Wedel who talk about the Sakdina system, a sort of caste system in Thailand that I hadn’t previously heard of. Some history episodes I’ve really liked without guests have been one on Phibunsongkhram and another on the Blue Diamond Affair. The episodes on Thai politics are enjoyable and accessible. There are some fun food episodes with the writer of the Hot Thai Kitchen newsletter. Some topics they’ve covered that I haven’t listened to but that others may find interesting are Buddhism and linguistics. Whatever you’re interested in, you’ll probably find something of value in the podcast, so just search through the archives!
Non-Fiction
I surprisingly don’t come across a ton of popular/commercial/mainstream non-fiction books on Thailand. Most of the good looking books out there are academic, which is unfortunate because they’re expensive and hard to find. Also… they’re boring. That’s okay for some of us, though, and there are still a few really good non-academic Thailand books to read.
For starters, though, I want to highlight a wonderful blog called Siam Rat, which has excellent history articles on Thailand and its neighbors. I highly recommend browsing through it, and if you’re taking a trip to Thailand and want to learn about its history and culture, I’d recommend reading an article or two a day rather than reading a history book. The articles give a great look into the country’s history, often by honing in on something specific, providing a lot of context while also being full of smaller stories that bring the history and often specific places to life.
Some highlights are The Remarkable History of the Portuguese in Thailand, a film history article, an article on the teak industry (especially relevant if you visit northern Thailand) and relatedly on Thailand’s “gingerbread houses.” Some interesting sounding ones I’ve yet to read are on astronomy in Thailand and the name change from Siam to Thailand. I find the blog especially useful as a repeat long stay visitor in Bangkok as there are a number of great posts that delve into “minor” sites that the average tourist doesn’t need to see but are still really interesting nonetheless. Some great Bangkok articles, which are worthwhile even if you don’t have time to visit all of the mentioned sites, include one on Bangkok’s Italian architects, one on the Italian sculptor who played a major role in developing Thailand’s modern art, and one on some interesting temple murals done in a western art style. The articles have helpful maps as well.
Also, each article has a bibliography which for me acts as a future reading list, I’ve learned about a number of interesting sounding books from here. There are good pictures too. I don’t know anything about the author Peter Simms (different from another Southeast Asia historian of the same name) other than what is written on the about page, but I thank him for his efforts and I’d love to see his work compiled into a book one day!
For books, I’ll start with my personal favorite Thailand non-fiction book, Another Bangkok by Alex Kerr. Though there’s a Bangkok focus, it’s relevant for all of Thailand, and it’s a very accessible, easy to read, and entertaining introduction and exploration of many aspects of Thailand and its culture, including its history, architecture, arts, and behaviors and mannerisms of Thai people, interspersed with Kerr’s personal stories which are much better and more insightful than most expat stories. I read it on my first big Thailand trip (two years and three trips ago), and it’s a rare book that I actually would like to read again. It’s a great book to travel with, too, easy to jump in and read a few pages whenever you get the chance.
I’d also love to read more from Kerr, who has previously primarily written about Japan (his earlier home which is the source of some interesting cultural comparisons with Thailand). I found an old interview where he said he’s working on a Lanna history book. I have no clue what the status of that is but I’m waiting! The day that comes out I’m buying a copy and planning my next north Thailand trip.
In a somewhat similar vein, lighthearted but very informative on small Thai cultural details, is Very Thai by Philip Cornwel-Smith. This is sort of an encyclopedia of Thai culture, with a lot of great photos, and unlike Kerr’s book which is focused more on the high culture, this is focused on the “Everyday Popular Culture.” It gives descriptions, origins, and analysis of amulets, inhalers, to-go beverages served in plastic bags, ghost stories, motorcycle driver uniforms, temple fairs, and a few dozen other things that you might encounter and be like “what’s up with that?” or might never realize until you read about them here.
It was great to read one of these short chapters a day when I was in Thailand (doing a mix of going chronologically and jumping to topics that I was curious about), though it’s a physically heavy book that is inconvenient to carry around, which is why I didn’t take it with on subsequent Thailand trips and why I haven’t gotten around to the follow-up Very Bangkok, which I plan to read one day. It is much smaller than a typical coffee table book though. You can get an e-book version of it, but I prefer the physical copy. In any case, it’s a good book to have for reference if you’re interested in Thailand. You can sample its contents on the book’s website. The book, by the way, was influential in making a retro Thai aesthetic cool for a new generation, which I was happy to learn.
For some weightier history, I read A History of Thailand (fourth edition) by Chris Baker & Pasuk Phongpaichit who are among the most highly regarded historians in Thailand. I liked it and am happy I read it and am glad to have it for reference, it’s a good overview of Thai history, but it’s not for normal people who don’t like dry, academic history books. Also, I often felt it moved too fast to be interesting. I wanted more small quirky details that bring history to life, which I got in bits and pieces but didn’t get enough of. I could have read a full book for each chapter.
Also, the 20th century is the biggest focus, you’re already there by 100 pages in. Maybe I would have preferred to read A History of Siam rather than Thailand. It rushed through a lot of stuff I was excited to learn about (the early history is kept to a minimum, I think there was only one sentence on the spread of Buddhism, there’s little on the cultural connections between India and Thailand, and even the Ayutthaya portions are surprisingly thin), but then later on there’d be like 10 pages on political parties in the 1930s, and I was mostly bored and found it difficult to keep track of names in parts like that. I found the parts about modern Thai politics to be surprisingly interesting, though, and despite my quibbles I still got a lot out of this. Anyway, you should know if you’re the kind of person who should read this book.
Baker and Phongpaichit (who are husband and wife) have a few other books, including A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World which I’d like to read. They’ve also done some translations of classic Thai literature, which I’ll get to in my folk stories, myths, and legends section.
The other historian whose name comes up a lot is David Wyatt who wrote Thailand: A Short History. There are also a number of other Thailand history books and translations that he wrote or edited (the book of essays Siam in Mind particularly looks interesting, and there’s a book on Thai murals). His work is on my list for future trips, and I think I might have liked his general Thailand history book more than the Baker/Phongpaichit one, based on the contents page and a few paragraphs that I read.
And for those spending a lot of time in northern Thailand, there’s Brief History of Lan Na, A: Northern Thailand from Past to Present by Hans Penth. Looking forward to that, one day.
One of my favorite Thailand books I’ve read, though on more of a niche subject, is Luk Thung: The Culture and Politics of Thailand's Most Popular Music by James Leonard Mitchell. I feel like you should know if you want to read it based on the title. If you still aren’t convinced, consider the French title Luk thung: La musique la plus populaire de Thaïlande. Do I even need to say anything else? You should just buy it or move on at this point.
The book gives a good historical overview of Thailand’s popular music, but the biggest value for me were the chapters that went into the specifics. My favorite chapter was one that acts as a profile of a prominent Luk Thung songwriter and producer. There are also interesting chapters on the fan and concert culture and on the intersection of Thai music and politics. It’s an academic book, so you have to put up with words like “counterhegemony” now and then, but it’s easy to read. As a music fan it’s a real treat and great to have for reference.
My one complaint is that most of the songs mentioned are difficult to find online, partly because Thai names and song titles don’t have consistent spellings in English. It is footnoted with youtube links, but it’s silly to type them in (I probably should have emailed Mitchell asking for a PDF) and after trying a few that didn’t work I gave up. I wish they would make a well organized Spotify/Youtube playlist, in order and by chapter, that you could read along with. But it’s not a huge deal. I just wouldn’t recommend that anyone tries to listen to each song, the way I did, as you’ll just end up wasting your time. There is a youtube channel that I believe is by the author with a lot of great music, some of it referenced in the book.
Mitchell also has a book called Music and Recording in King Chulalongkorn's Bangkok which is said to be “the first comprehensive history of Siamese music during the celebrated reign of Rama V… [focusing] on the brief period from 1903 to 1910 when gramophone recording came to Siam and almost failed to capture valuable performances… [revealing] a story of Siamese musicians, European recording experts, and Chinese middlemen.” Sounds awesome, I guess, but probably too niche for me at the moment, and not the kind of thing I want to spend $50 on. If they make an extensive youtube/spotify playlist for it, though, I’d buy it. (Or how about a documentary? That seems like a better idea.)
Another offbeat, niche topic book that I liked and recommend is The Fate of Rural Hell by Benedict Anderson (the Imagined Communities guy… I haven’t read that one), about Thailand’s first hell temple. I went to a few hell temples (though not the one the book is about) in Thailand and fell in love with them, and I generally love Thailand’s over the top modern temples, and I came across this book while searching for something to read on the topic. It’s a very short book, more of an essay, and has lots of photos (including some by Apichatpong Weerasethakul!) (more academics should throw in cameo appearances from major filmmakers into their essays, like an inverse of Annie Hall). It’s an easy read and a good description of the foundation and purpose of the hell temple(s), with biographical information about the abbott, which I felt was the best part. There are also interesting details about financing the temple, elite Thais as temple patrons, how the local community engages with the temple (not always in respectable ways, but I can’t say more here), and some weird analysis that I didn’t understand about how the abbott used the temple to express his repressed homosexuality or something like that. I could have used more depth, but I appreciated its conciseness nonetheless. Not one of my top Thailand reads, but it’s a fun and quick one.
I believe the one other non-fiction book about Thailand that I’ve read is Bangkok Days by Lawrence Osborne, which was a fun read but not something I’d rank along with the other books I’ve read. Part of that is just my interest. It’s about the writer’s own experience aimlessly wandering around the city trying to figure life out (many parts reminded me of my own aimless wanderings in Mumbai eight years ago), and there’s a focus on other expats living on the fringe of society, and an undercurrent of the city’s sexual marketplace runs through it all. Other books on similar topics seemed overly “Look how crazy Thailand is!” for me (I’m thinking of Thailand Confidential, which people like, though it doesn’t look like my thing, and others in that vein) while this looked classier and more philosophical, and it has interesting insights and observations through it all. And Osborne is a good writer. Some parts had me laughing out loud (I do not do this often).
I just never cared all that much about the subject matter. I’d rather read about Thai culture. Most people seem to like this more than me. I’m the kind of traveler/expat that avoids other travelers/expats, so keep that in mind. Osborne is a well regarded crime novelist whose works center on expats in various countries, and while reading this I thought I’d like this better in novel form. But then I read his Bangkok based novel and liked it less than this. Oh well. I periodically stumble upon travel articles or interviews with him and always really enjoy them. Here’s one interview. I think he’s the sort of writer I’d rather read in short doses than in a full book.
How are there no well known Bangkok history books? That’s insane to me. I’ve picked out Bangkok: The Story of a City by Alec Waugh (brother of the more famous Evelyn) from 1970 and Bangkok: A Cultural History by Maryvelma O'Neil from 2008. Neither are widely available. I’ll pick up used copies on Amazon next time I’m in the U.S., unless I can find some used copies in Thailand. The Waugh book looks especially good. (Hopefully this post doesn’t become too popular, causing people to snatch the few remaining copies up…)
I did buy 22 Walks in Bangkok by Kenneth Barrett, which contains walking tours of the city with historical information on the neighborhoods and buildings. Despite my goal of getting through the book, I don’t think I ever completed a full walk. That’s no fault of the book, though, which I thought was great from what I’ve read, I just never had the time to do justice to it (despite spending around three months in Bangkok at this point, on and off). It’s not a book for Bangkok beginners who are there on short trips, but if you’re someone who has explored the city pretty extensively, you can read it as a history book, told neighborhood by neighborhood, monument by monument. And if you are there longer term, it’s a great resource. If I were spending a year or so in Bangkok I’d undoubtedly prioritize working my way through this book.
What else is there? For my next trip I’ll probably read Chariot of the Sun by Shane Bunnag, a memoir and family history of the Bunnags, a prominent noble family that descends from a Persian merchant who became an important figure in Ayutthaya. Probably not an ideal book for newcomers to Thai history, but it looks great for people who want to delve deeper. It’s easy to find, I’ve seen copies at book stores in Thailand.
I also want to read Consul in Paradise: Sixty-nine years in Siam by W.A.R. Wood, written in 1966. “Wood was appointed in 1896 by Queen Victoria appointed as a Consular Officer in Siam (now Thailand). He spent 69 years in the country, rising to become British Consul-General. During World War II, Wood was interned as an enemy alien. He also wrote one of the first histories of Thailand, A History of Siam.” Unfortunately this and his other books are hard to find and expensive.
I don’t know of any non-cookbook food books about Thai food, unfortunately. The introductions to Austin Bush’s north and south Thailand cookbooks have been excellent introductions to the regions themselves (you can read the introductions in the free samples on Kindle). I can’t find samples but I want to buy David Thompson’s books, which I believe are good to read as Thai food history books (I’ve been to two of his restaurants in Bangkok, too, and always enjoy his interviews). I’ll buy them one day but I don’t feel like lugging heavy books around for now.
I do subscribe to three newsletters on the topic that I recommend (they all have cookbooks too). I really like Hot Thai Kitchen (mostly recipes as opposed to food history and culture which I’m more interested in, but I still enjoy reading it, and for some reason I love the ingredient guides and brand comparisons even for products I don’t use, these appeal directly to the part of my brain that drives me to obsessive-compulsively read the labels of every single item at the grocery store). The Epestle is great but is sadly mostly paywalled (a mix of recipes and history/culture, I’ll probably pay for it next time I’m in Thailand, and you can google around for great articles elsewhere by the writer Leela Punyaratabandhu, and from the samples her Bangkok cookbook looks like an interesting read even beyond the recipes). I also like Bangkok Glutton (mostly travelogues and recipes, and the writer Chawadee Nualkhair has good pieces on Thai food elsewhere too, here’s one for Michelin on royal Thai cuisine, and her cookbooks and street food guides look good).
And whatever you want to know about durian in Thailand (or elsewhere) can be found at Year of the Durian.
Finally, I must mention that there are a few high profile non-fiction books that are banned in Thailand, and you can reportedly get in trouble for carrying them. In any case, I’m sure they are banned for a good reason and are terrible books that you shouldn’t read anyway. Don’t bother looking them up. Not recommended.
And as a bonus for everyone who made it this far, I enjoy following Retro Siam on Twitter. There are probably similarly good Instagram accounts.
Translated Thai-Language Fiction
Though they also qualify as translated Thai fiction, I have a separate section for folk stories, myths, legends, religious stories, etc.
There’s not a ton of Thai fiction that’s been translated, sadly, and most of what I’ve read hasn’t clicked with me (I loved the short story collection Arid Dreams, though, so read on). I look forward to reading more and I hope more stuff gets translated soon. All of the Thai authors I’ve read have won the SEA Award, which I believe is the top literary prize in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. I don’t really care but it may be of interest to you. It would be a good way to discover Thai writers except most of them haven’t been translated. I probably have bad literary taste and thus usually like books that don’t win awards more than books that do win awards, but Thai books that don’t win awards don’t seem to get translated.
I’ll start with the two books I’ve most wanted to read, and then will get to what I’ve read.
One book I’m excited to read is the hugely popular Thai historical novel Four Reigns by Kukrit Pramoj, which was serialized in 1951 and 1952. It comes highly recommended and I’m expecting to love it, though it’s probably best for people who already have a solid foundation of Thai history. I picked up a copy on Shopee on my last trip. Most copies on Amazon U.S. and India are expensive and ship slowly, though it is available on Kindle.
Pramoj was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction in addition to being a politician (he was prime minister for a year in the 70s), and though he has a few other works that have been translated I’ve never seen any recommended and they’re mostly hard to find. I want somebody to translate his book about Jewish history, I would totally read that. Sadly, his home in Bangkok, which was once an apparently great museum, is no longer open to the public, to the best of my knowledge.
The translator Tulachandra (a member of the Bunnag family) also translated the two volume Prisna by Princess Vibhavadi Rangsit, originally published in 1938. “The novel's eponymous heroine is a modern young Siamese woman who returns to Thailand after being raised in America by her uncle. The youngest of four sisters, she causes a stir in Thai society because of her beauty and headstrong ways - she wears shorts in public, insists on getting a job as an English teacher and is beset by suitors.” I haven’t heard much about it, but there are few enough Thai translations that it seems relevant to mention.
The other Thai book I really want to read is Letters from Thailand by Botan, from 1969, though I can’t seem to find reasonably priced copies in Thailand or India. There are some copies on the U.S. Amazon, I’ll pick one up next time I go. It sounds great to me! “Letters from Thailand is the story of Tan Suang U, a young man who leaves China to make his fortune in Thailand at the close of World War II, and ends up marrying, raising a family, and operating a successful business. The novel unfolds through his letters to his beloved mother in China. In Tan Suang U's lively account of his daily life in Bangkok's bustling Chinatown, larger and deeper themes emerge: his determination to succeed at business in this strange new culture; his hopes for his family; his resentment at how easily his children embrace urban Thai culture at the expense of the Chinese heritage which he holds dear; his inability to understand or adopt Thai ways; and his growing alienation from a society that is changing too fast for him.”
I don’t believe anything else from Botan has been translated, but the translator Susan Fulop Kepner has a few other works, most notably the 1976 A Child of the Northeast by Kampoon Boontawee which I periodically see referenced as a classic of Thai literature, though I can’t say the subject matter, “a year in the life of a village in Northeast Thailand during the 1930's,” greatly excites me. Anyway, it’s hard to find. She also did some modern Ramakien story translations that I’ll mention in the myths/legends/folk stories section.
The one Thai-language writer that I read and loved was Duanwad Pimwana. She has a short novel called Bright, but the description didn’t really call to me so I went with her short story collection Arid Dreams. Both are translated by Mui Poopoksakul who did some of the other books I’ll mention below, and I always thought she did a great job, better than most translations I read, and the different authors she’s translated all feel very different, so it’s not a case of the translator’s voice superseding or flattening the author’s.
Arid Dreams has 13 crisply written stories that were originally published between 1995 and 2014. Like all story collections it’s a mixed bag for me, but I probably loved around five stories, liked another five, and was bored by three (this is a much better average than most story collections for me). My favorite stories (Arid Dreams and Men’s Rights are two that come to mind) are juicy page turners, but almost every story, even the duller ones, has sharp, interesting character portraits that really come alive. They’re also all a good look at a Thailand I don’t get to see with much depth, though they’re more focused on character than the setting.
This is apparently a “feminist” book, a distinction I don’t quite understand, and it is published by something called the Feminist Press. I will say that the author understands the male mind very well. It made me uncomfortable at times. I don’t know how she discovered so many of my darkest secrets. I’m not proud of relating to some of the male characters in here, but it is what it is. I’m not really sure what feminism is in a literary sense (or at all), but some of these stories are good smutty fun, so even if you are the kind of person who thinks they won’t like so-called feminist literature you might still like this. Obviously I gotta read more feminist fiction. My wife thought I was being a good ally or whatever by reading this and didn’t know why I was grinning so much. I felt like a kid in class secretly reading comic books inside of the textbook, but here no subterfuge was required.
Anyway hopefully my jokes (I mean they’re not really jokes but let’s insert some plausible deniability into this) don’t turn anyone off from this. I mean, feminists should like it too, even if they don’t like me, or don’t like me liking it for non-feminist-approved reasons. But what matters is that the stories are really good. And whatever they depict is just the human condition. Maybe it’s not really a feminist book, but is (like all great fiction?) a humanist book. That’s more like it. (According to an essay by the translator, the author doesn’t consider herself a feminist writer, nor is she considered one in Thailand, where she’s seen more as a “genderless” social realist writer. That makes sense to me.)
And the collection made me want to read a full novel from Pimwana, so I look forward to reading Bright on a future trip! And I expect to re-read some of the stories in here, which I rarely ever do.
Unfortunately I had less success with the three other Thai authors I tried reading, and I didn’t finish a single other full book. The following are all highly acclaimed though, so maybe some of you will like them. I could just have bad taste, after all.
The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth by Veeraporn Nitiprapha was apparently a major bestseller in Thailand (no idea what that means in terms of copies sold) and was very well reviewed in its original and translated versions. I was looking forward to reading it and the author’s follow-up Memories of the Memories of the Black Rose Cat (both translated by Kong Rithdee, who also writes subtitles for a lot of Thai movies in addition to his own work as a writer/director). Both are free with Kindle Unlimited last time I checked, and both have cool covers by Nakrob Moonmanas who I now realize is responsible for a lot of the cool covers I see in Thai book stores.
Unfortunately, I realized early on that Blind Earthworm wasn’t for me at all, and I didn’t get very far before I started skimming and eventually giving up. I should point out, though, that I’ve never liked anything classified as magical realism, and have found classics by the likes of Rushdie and Marquez to be similarly unreadable, so if you like those maybe you’ll like this too. The apparently soap opera inspired story of two sisters growing up on the outskirts of Bangkok in the 80s sounded good to me, but the writing didn’t click with me. I was irritated at the excessive imagery and constant metaphors, which really just distanced me from the characters and story and prevented them from coming to life for me. Your mileage may differ, though. I have a pretty strong preference for crisp, direct writing.
This was a bummer because I was really excited for Memories of the Memories, which is a historical Bangkok Chinatown set Thai-Chinese family saga. Totally up my alley subject matter wise, but with this writing style I knew I wouldn’t stand it so I never gave it a chance.
Another book I was looking forward to but gave up early on was The Understory by Saneh Sangsuk, translated by the aforementioned Mui Poopoksakul. They also have the novella Venom which I didn’t read. Understory is also highly regarded and Sangsuk is considered to be one of Thailand’s best literary writers. However, despite an interesting sounding story (an elderly monk in a village telling stories about his life, including his pilgrimage to India), I didn’t have the patience for its writing. I got a lot of lengthy descriptions (in literally neverending paragraphs) of the environment and had little to latch on to in the story or characters.
I had somewhat better luck with the short story collection The Sad Part Was by Prabda Yoon. The translation is also by Poopoksakul, as is another of Yoon’s collections called Moving Parts, though the reviews for that were mixed while Sad Part Was received raves in addition to his stories supposedly being very popular. He also has numerous novels which have not been translated. Yoon is also a writer/director and I think his film work looks great, and he has some other art and design stuff, see his website for more info.
I only read the first five or so stories in the collection. It got off to a good start and I really enjoyed the first story (which you can read here), which was quirky, funny, clever, and original, something that describes most of the stories I read, which sounds like a good thing. However, the stories (oft-described as postmodern, though I’d feel tacky using that word myself) offered little else for me. I liked the style but was rarely very engaged in the stories and grew bored. I’m not an absolutist in my demands of storytelling, but I usually am pleased when I receive some combination of drama, ideas, psychological insights, atmosphere, and detailing. But the point of most of these stories seemed to me to simply highlight how clever of a writer Yoon is.
Yoon’s work was said to be groundbreaking in Thai which is why he caused a sensation (this was mentioned in the History of Thailand book I read), and I can see why. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was lost in translation, which I thought was well done, but I did feel that to really appreciate this I may have had to be there as a Thai speaker in the 90s or ‘00s, experiencing this fresh new voice writing in Thai in a way nobody has done before. The English translation got great reviews too, though. On my next trip I’ll try another story or two and maybe will re-evaluate this.
The one other Thai literary icon whose name I’ve seen come up is Chart Korbjitti, known for his book The Judgement. Not easy to find, nor are his other translated works, but I’ll seek them out once I get through some of the other Thailand stuff I’ve been wanting to read.
His translations are done by Marcel Barang who might be the most prolific translator of Thai fiction. He put out a collection titled The 20 best novels of Thailand which you can get on the U.S. Amazon for $50. Contents can be found here. It might only be 10 books? I’m not complaining. If it’s still available I’ll probably buy a copy next time I’m in the U.S. The only titles I know are The Judgement and Jan Dara which was made into a film.
I sometimes see other translations at bookstores but there’s really not much else and this is all that stood out to me.
Thai Folk Stories, Myths, Legends, Epic Poems, Etc (not sure what that etc really encompasses though)
I would encourage everybody who comes to Thailand to familiarize themselves with some of the major stories that you’ll encounter, most notably the Ramakien (aka the Ramayana, which my Indian readers will already know) and some of the Jataka Tales. There are some other iconic folk stories worth getting to know as well, along with many lesser known stories. On one level I recommend these stories as a way to deepen your engagement with Thai culture and to better understand some of the art that you’ll see. But I also recommend them because they are a lot of fun! With that said, I haven’t found accessible, well written versions of most of these stories, though that is something I will pursue further on future trips.
I’ll start with the Ramakien, which is probably the story you’ll come across the most often in Thailand, most prominently in the artwork at the Grand Palace in Bangkok. You’ll also find it in plenty of other artwork, sculptures, dance performances, puppet shows, and of course the names of the kings and the former capital. I’m not going to bother explaining its importance since it’s common knowledge and you can google it, but it’s one of the most popular stories in the world and is particularly important to India (where it originated) and Thailand, so it’s worth taking the time to know the basics, and it’s a great story.
Though you’ll come across things related to the Ramakien everywhere in Thailand, including 3D postcards at 7/11, actual book versions of the story are pretty rare (though there are a vast array of books on the Indian Ramayana). I sometimes see very expensive art books, and on my last trip I spotted a young adult book inspired by the Ramakien called Totsakan: The Demon King and The Hermit’s Riddle (my guess is it works best for people who already know the story) but I never come across actual retellings. There are some older versions on Amazon that are out of print and expensive. I find this to be very odd. Bangkok is among the most visited cities in the world, its top attraction tells the whole story in very elaborate paintings, and it’s basically the national epic. You’d think they’d want to capitalize on this and promote the story. I’m sure censorship is an issue to some extent (see the controversy over an opera version in 2006), but I’d still think there’d be some “official” versions of the story for sale.
So I recommend the Indian versions (Indian readers should skip ahead). It’d be nice to get some Thai versions too, as there are differences in the stories (as there are across its countless variations in India and elsewhere) and aesthetic differences. But don’t worry about it as the core story is the same and part of the fun is spotting the differences.
There are so many versions of the Ramayana to read and I won’t claim to have any expertise, but I guess I’m a good person to ask since I didn’t grow up with it and got up to speed well enough with the few pretty easy versions that I read. The first version I read was Ramayana: Divine Loophole by Sanjay Patel, a Pixar animator turned children’s book writer and illustrator. The art style might be contemporary for some, but I think it’s fun, and it’s an entertaining, well told, simple kiddy version of the story that you can read in an hour or so. A good beginner version, and I think it’s good to start with a kiddy picture book version at first.
Another kiddy version that should be good is one from Amar Chitra Katha, a long running Indian comic book publication aimed at kids and with a focus on the myths (and with a more conventional aesthetic than Patel’s work). I haven’t read their Ramayana (of which there are a few versions) but I usually enjoy the ACK stories and find them to be good intros, if too simplistic and bombastic.
I should also mention the anime Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama which is considered to be very good and is likely a great introduction, and there’s a recent 4k restoration. None of the other film versions look very good to me (though I’ve either liked or am interested in some of the modern interpretations of it).
The second version I read was R.K. Narayan’s Ramayana, a modern prose version (from one of India’s most iconic English language writers) at around 150 pages. I loved it and it’s great if you want to delve deeper but, like me, wouldn’t have the patience to read one of the longer versions. I wouldn’t recommend it as your first version of the story, though, and I think I would have been bored and confused if I read this without having first gotten to know the story in one of the even easier versions.
None of the above are hard to find, and they will be enough for most people and provide a good working knowledge of the story and its characters, though there is much more if you wish to further your Ramayana studies (both intermediate and advanced versions, whether it’s regional variations, full translations, modern retellings and interpretations, novelized versions, etc, not to mention academic works on the subject). It’s not really relevant for our purposes here, though, so I’ll move on. You can email me if you want more recommendations or wish to discuss further.
I lastly want to mention the Thai language Married to the Demon King: Sri Daoruang and Her Demon Folk (translated by Susan Fulop Kepner), which is a series of short stories from the 80s that act as a loose Ramakien adaptation set in contemporary Bangkok. I’ll seek those out on a future trip. They may belong more in the translated Thai fiction category, but I also think they sound like a good way to see how the story gets interpreted in Thailand.
The next set of iconic stories to read are the Jataka Tales (another Indian export), the stories of Buddha’s past lives, which you’ll see all over Thailand in temple artwork. There are hundreds of Jataka tales of varying sources and importance, but the final ten lives of Buddha, the Mahānipāta Jātaka, are the most important and are the ones you’ll most frequently see in temple murals (many temples will have ten paintings, one for each story depicting a famous scene, as seen on the wikipedia page).
Here I am telling you to read the Jatakas to deepen your engagement with Thai culture and better understand what is being depicted in temple artwork, but, uh, I haven’t read them. Before my last trip I bought the Penguin version Jatakas: Birth Stories Of The Bodhisatta translated by Sarah Shaw, and I intended to read the stories that were popular in Thailand, but good god I was very bored. This edition is for serious scholars, not for dilettantes like me. Unfortunately my searches on Amazon didn’t turn up any versions that seemed to be right for me. (There are some illustrated kid’s versions out there but they all seem to focus on animal stories and other more minor stories.)
There is, however, a great illustrated version of Mahajanaka, one of the most popular and important stories, written by none other than the one and only King Bhumibol! This is awesome and highly recommended. There are two versions, one has lavish classically inspired artwork by a number of Thai artists (including Chalermchai Kositpipat, the one name I knew), and the other is a cartoon version done by a famous Thai comic strip artist. I read both and had a lot of fun with each, though my preference is for the more traditional version, at least for the first reading, as it is more dignified.
This isn’t widely available outside of Thailand, though there are some expensive copies on the U.S. Amazon. Note that it says Thai edition but contains both the English and the Thai. Shopee has it for much cheaper, though, and I’ve spotted it at some bookstores in Thailand. I only wish there were books like these for all of the major Jataka tales! Bhumibol, by the way, has another book he wrote, about his dog. I haven’t read that one yet.
It was only at the end of my last trip that I came across some abridged retellings of the Jatakas over at thejatakatales.com, and they look great! Apparently this is the first ever abridged version of the entire collection of 547 Jataka tales, though keep in mind the last ten are the most relevant should you wish to understand the temple murals you’ll come across. The website also lists 12 personal favorites of the writer, and it has good background information. This is the work of Tim Bewer of timsthailand.com, where I learned about some great local folk stories when I was in Khon Kaen, and he has some temple mural photo albums with brief descriptions of a few of the Jataka tales, such as this one on the Vessantara Jataka. I really look forward to digging into these seemingly accessible and enjoyable Jatakas on my next trip.
For the more scholarly, historians/translators Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit have the book From the Fifty Jātaka: Selections from the Thai Paññāsa Jātaka, containing the only translations of the Thai versions of the stories, see Wikipedia for more info.
Next up on my list is Khun Chang Khun Phaen, an awesome folk story, an epic action adventure romantic melodrama, that I was introduced to by an exhibit at Bangkok’s MOCA. This is possibly Thailand’s most famous story that doesn’t have any religious or mythological basis. There is a lot of good background information for the story, which was initially told in performances, on Wikipedia.
The way that I read the story was kind of absurd. I read three versions of the story concurrently as none were very good on their own. The three versions were an illustrated one I found on Shopee (here’s a link, though I don’t know if it will stay up), the story featured in Fascinating Folk Tales of Thailand by Thanapol Chadchaidee, and the Wikipedia summary. I highly recommend this, as even two out of three versions would have felt very incomplete and confusing. I loved this experience, though it was admittedly frustrating, and there must be a better way to do it.
There is a full English translation of the story by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit (based on a version written by Prince Damrong in 1917-1918) in addition to an abridged version. I know the full version would defeat me, but from the sample the abridged version actually appears very accessible so I intend to read this soon on some future trip.
There have been numerous other Thai versions by famous authors but none have been translated yet. There is an English version from the 1950s from Prem Chaya (aka Prince Prem Purachatra), with artwork by the iconic Hem Vejakorn (see his works here and here), but I can’t find any copies and Wikipedia says only two of the three volumes were ever completed and I can’t find any more info on the topic.
By the way, the illustrations in the version I read were from murals at Wat Pa Lelai Worawihan in Suphan Buri, which is where the story takes place. Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit have a blog about the story and there’s a post where they visit the temple and see the artworks, and in the process they hire the artist to do artwork for their book. I really enjoyed reading this. There’s much more on the blog, including information on similar stories, a book of essays about the story, euphemistic sex scenes in the story (“A Hainanese junk sailed into a small canal” reminds me of the end of North by Northwest ), artworks inspired by the story from the very famous Chakrabhand Posayakrit, and various other real places you can visit that are associated with the story. Check it out. (One place they don’t mention but that many tourists are likely to visit is Bangkok’s Ancient City which contains some references to the story, including recreations of the characters’ houses.)
Also, while reading the story I couldn’t help but think it would make a great movie! There are a number of film versions of the story, and though most look bad, I personally think the 2002 Kun Pan directed by Thanit Jitnukul looks awesome, though I’m not sure there are any good quality prints to watch at the moment. Here’s a very bad quality trailer, very different from how I imagined it, but a worthwhile looking take on the story.
Baker and Phongpaichit have also translated Yuan Phai, the Defeat of Lanna: A Fifteenth-Century Thai Epic Poem. I’m sure this would bore me, but there’s not a lot of stuff like this that’s been translated, so it’s noteworthy.
I really want to read, in some form, Phra Aphai Mani, another epic poem and a very well known story in Thailand, or so I’m told. The writer is the royal poet Sunthorn Phu, whose museum can be visited in Bangkok and whose work I’d like to become more familiar with. The only English version that I know of is from the ‘50s by Prem Chaya with illustrations by Hem Vejakorn. I don’t know where to find a copy, but it has been reproduced online. There are some film versions, a live action and an animated one, but neither appeal to me.
Outside of these major stories, there are of course many lesser known and local folk stories. There are some collections out there but they’re hard to find and there’s little information out there to determine which are good. I picked up Fascinating Folk Tales of Thailand by Thanapol Chadchaidee at a used book store in Chiang Mai and was looking forward to it, but ultimately the writing was just okay and doesn’t do the stories justice. It has a mix of small and big stories (KCKP and Phra Aphai Mani are in there). I’ll keep reading if I don’t find any other collection but I hope to find a better one. Here are a bunch on Internet Archives. I had once seen a cool looking book of folk stories from Isaan with a snake on the cover but now I can’t find it.
I periodically come across fun and interesting regional stories and epics while traveling, I will include those in the posts for the places where they are relevant.
English Language Fiction Set in Thailand
Though I have prioritized Thai language fiction in translation, there’s a decent amount of English language fiction set in Thailand, some of it by Thai origin authors and covering narrative ground that little of the Thai fiction in translation has covered, notably a lot of historical fiction. Unfortunately that doesn’t describe any of the English books I read, and I wouldn’t strongly recommend any of them, but I had fun with them and they may appeal to some of you, and there are some great looking books on my to-read list.
I’ll start with the book I’m most eager to read, which is Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad. I picked it up for my last trip but didn’t get around to it as I focused more on translated fiction. I will certainly get to it on my next trip. It is, as I understand it, a series of interconnected stories set in different periods of Bangkok’s history. Probably best for people with some knowledge of and interest in the city’s history. It was very well reviewed and is currently the author’s only novel.
I have some more good looking books rooted in Thai culture and history (many of them by Thai origin authors) that I’ll put at the end, but I wanted to put this up front since I actually purchased it. The books I read were less rooted in Thai culture and weren’t by Thai origin writers, but I won’t hold that against them and will just judge them on their own terms. All are pretty different from what I go for now, but they were representative of what I found interesting at the time that I got them.
The best of what I’ve read is definitely The Beach by Alex Garland. I debated whether I should include this because it’s so minimally Thai, even though it’s set in Thailand. It’s a backpacker book, the sort of thing I wouldn’t consider reading when in Thailand, but I randomly read this years before going to Thailand because it sounded fun and I’ve liked Garland’s film work (I’ve never seen the Boyle/Leo movie based on this, though). It’s a ton of fun, a great modern adventure book about westerners looking for paradise in Thailand’s hidden beaches. I like a good page-turner in theory but in practice usually find them too middling and lacking depth, but I thought this was really well done and it just hooked me from start to finish. You should really read something more Thai, that’s presumably why you’ve read this far, but if this sounds good to you then you just might love it.
More Thai and often very fun, if not as consistently satisfying or well crafted, is Bangkok 8 by John Burdett. This is the first novel in a series of six about a Thai police officer. There are a number of crime series set in Bangkok, almost all written by expats living in the city and with a heavy focus on the world of bar dancers, and this is the most popular of them. You can read about some others here, I’m sure they’re fun for people who are into this sort of thing but I personally don’t feel compelled to read further unless someone I trust strongly recommends them to me, though that seems unlikely. I read Bangkok 8 the week before my first big Thailand trip in 2022, and it’s not the sort of thing I would go for now. Though I love great crime fiction, I no longer have the patience to sift through it to find the really great stuff, and critics never seem so helpful.
Anyway, I thought the start was surprisingly strong. Good, silly, pulpy fun with a compelling, propulsive plot and a great Bangkok setting. Buddhism is ever present, and though it’s not a great anthropological work or anything, it felt well informed on the world it depicted. As it went on, though, it just dragged too much for me, and it didn’t have enough character depth or literary appeal to keep me caring. I never felt tempted to put it down, though, and it had moments of brilliance, which I don’t always say about this sort of thing. There’s some great, delightfully absurd twists and some wonderful humor (though also plenty of dumb cringeworthy dialogue), and much of the book is a fun trashy foray into Bangkok’s seamy side. I kept thinking a more tightly edited and thoughtfully crafted book would have been a blast and a shining example of the genre. The potential was there. As it is though, it’s only for genre fans, really, but if you’re coming to Thailand and are one of those people who only reads thrillers then this is a good bet. I didn’t like it enough to bother with any sequels, but I briefly contemplated it. Maybe that counts for something.
I also read The Glass Kingdom by Lawrence Osborne which I liked but had higher expectations for. Osborne (whose non-fiction I read, see above) is a well regarded writer who tends to write about expats in exotic locales getting caught up in the world of crime. His work often gets compared to Graham Greene and occasionally to Patricia Highsmith, and the Raymond Chandler estate hired him to write a Philip Marlowe novel. This is all right up my alley, and though he’s based in Bangkok this is his only book that’s set there. I was excited. As I mentioned above, I love crime books, but I usually find them to be too formulaic and lacking in depth and interesting characters, and I thought Osborne would be just the blend of high and low that I look for but rarely get. Unfortunately, though, it let me down on every level. Though there are good ingredients, with potential in the story, characters, and setting, nothing ended up being that interesting and it generally felt underdeveloped. It is pretty readable and I wasn’t bored, but it never rose above “yeah, it’s decent” to me. This got a lot of great reviews, though, so I don’t want to dissuade anyone. Decide for yourself if you think it sounds good.
I believe that’s all I’ve read. I mostly plan to prioritize translated Thai fiction in the near future, but there are some great looking English language books that I also have on my list, many of them historical fiction. Some standouts:
Beads on a String by Paul Wedel and Yuangrat Wedel - A historical novel (the first in a trilogy) set in southern Thailand, written by two historians. I haven’t spent much time in or learned much about southern Thailand but I would like to read this when I do! That said, I wish it were a single volume and not a trilogy. I may never get to this.
Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski - “A daring, spellbinding tale of anthropologists, missionaries, demon possession, sexual taboos, murder, and an obsessed young reporter named Mischa Berlinski.” 200% Sold, though I’m more frightened and disturbed by the author making himself the main character than by any of the book’s macabre subject matter. Despite the sensationalist description I quoted, this seems to be more on the literary side and got great reviews. Looking forward to it.
The Enchantress by Han Suyin - A historical adventure set in Ayutthaya! I’m in! The final novel of Han, whose work I’m not familiar with, but going by her Wikipedia she lived a fascinating life and looks like an interesting writer. Much of her work is set in Southeast Asia, this is the only one based in Thailand.
The Falcon of Siam by Axel Aylwen - More Ayutthaya historical adventures! This one about Constantine Phaulkon. Sounds awesome, but it’s another trilogy. There’s another book about Phaulkon called The Paston Papers by J. C Shaw, which is sometimes sold with another of his books called The Seal of Tammatari. Maybe someday I’ll spend a few months going full Ayutthaya, reading all of these with the Baker/Phongpaichit Ayutthaya history book.
A Good True Thai by Sunisa Manning - Students, class divides, and political upheavals in 1970s Thailand. An interesting period in modern Thai history, if not the period that most calls to me. The only novel from the writer, who is half Thai and grew up in Bangkok.
A Woman of Bangkok by Jack Reynolds - There’s a glut of bar girl fiction out there, but this seems like the only classy one. Published in the 60s, set in the 50s, with good reviews and cover that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to read in public. At the opposite end of the spectrum might be Private Dancer by Stephen Leather. I’m down to read some trash one day, but I’m not sure if this is the trash I should read. For a more literary take on the white-guy-seeks-sex-in-Thailand genre, I guess the French novel Plateforme (Platform) by Michel Houellebecq is the standout. And I didn’t know the French erotic novel Emmanuelle is set in Thailand.
Some other random stuff:
I hardly ever read sci-fi but The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is frequently recommended.
I spotted a book called Teaklord in Chiang Mai earlier this year. I believe it was self published by the writer Ron Emmons. I never know what to expect from such books when I can’t find any reviews, and I should keep my expectations low, but the story sounds super fun to me: “It’s 1875 and Chiang Mai, capital of Lanna, is a cultural crossroads of Buddhist monks and Christian missionaries, of spirit doctors and opium smokers, of seductive dancers and Western adventurers. A sharp rise in teak prices sets off a mad rush for logging concessions, and the forests of Lanna resound to the thwack of axes and the trumpeting of elephants as the mighty trees are felled. Enter Doctor Marion Cheek, a medical missionary and teak trader, whose exploits in this exotic realm – saving the life of the ruler’s wife, setting up a harem of local beauties and standing triumphant at the kingdom’s highest point – make him a legend in his lifetime.” I learned a bit about this period in northern Thailand’s history in my time in Lampang (some more info and links in that post) earlier this year, and a bit more on a quick visit to Chiang Mai after, a part of the city’s history that totally eluded me on my earlier long stay there (which I’ve yet to write about).
I’m not seeking them out but there’s gotta be some good WW2 books. I only know of The Bridge over the River Kwai (Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï) by Pierre Boulle, though I’ll probably just stick with the movie. How many people know that this is the same writer as Planet of the Apes (La Planète des singes)? I admit that compels me to read it more. “Boulle was an engineer serving as a secret agent with the Free French in Singapore, when he was captured and subjected to two years' forced labour. He used these experiences in The Bridge on the River Kwai.”
There are many books, both fiction and non-fiction, about Jim Thompson. Siam, or the Woman Who Shot a Man by Lily Tuck seems like the best.
There are two well reviewed short story collections from Thai origin writers that are well reviewed and look good: Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap and Welcome Me to the Kingdom by Mai Nardone. I prefer novels to short stories so may never get to these, but for people who do want short stories these seem like good options (see also the highly recommended Arid Dreams in the translated Thai fiction section).
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