Letters from Thailand

by Botan, Susan Fulop Kepner (Translator)

When the original Thai version of Letters from Thailand appeared in Bangkok in 1969, it was promptly awarded the SEATO Prize for Thai Literature. This new English translation reveals it as one of Thailand's most entertaining and enduring modern novels, and one of the few portrayals of the immigrant Chinese experience in urban Thailand.

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.

Genres: Asia, Historical Fiction, Fiction, China, 20th Century, Asian Literature, Travel

412 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Stan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to praise this book enough. I have no idea how it reads in Thai (maybe one day I'll find out), but it is beautifully translated and a fantastically well told story. A moving picture of Thailand and Chinese immigrants in the Post WWII period. This is one absolutely greaaaatttt book.

[Delia · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Note: A friend asked me, not long ago, if I had read any Thai literature. I had to say no. Even though I've been living in The Land of Smiles for years, I had never actually read a book by a Thai author. Surely, I said to myself, there must be some translated books out there, but having found them, which should I choose? I picked 'Letters from Thailand' mainly because I liked the title. There's something very personal about a book based on letters. And so my journey began...


"My Most Beloved and Respected Mother...."

This is how 'Letters from Thailand' begins, simple yet so powerful one cannot help but be instantly moved.
The book is written in the epistolary style, comprised of 96 letters, from 1945 to 1967, all dated according to the Chinese calendar. It tells the story of Tan Suang U, a Chinese immigrant, his journey to Thailand, his hope for a better life, his determination and courage and most of all, his unfailing love and devotion to the mother he left behind.

Luck and a lot of hard work are the keys to Suang U's fortune. Adjusting to his new life proves to be a challenge he is perfectly capable of overcoming. He has friends who help him and before long he is married and running a profitable business.
His letters are an account of his life in Thailand, from bathing in the khlong at sunrise, to dealing with his Thai employees.

The main theme of the novel is that of the immigrant trying to build a better life for himself, while at the same time holding on to the traditions of his own people. That proves to be very difficult for Suang U, as the times change and he finds himself alone in a world of people who have adapted and try to live with the changes.

Suang U clings to the old ways, trying to instill in his own children the education he was given as a child in the Chinese village of Po Leng. He frequently remembers passages from childhood and thanks his mother for the way in which she has raised him and Younger Brother.
The narrative flows easily and the story is told from a single perspective, that of Suang U, keeping things simple and orderly. The book was translated from Thai and the translator did a very good job, as there are no disparaging paragraphs or ideas, and ties the whole story into a coherent and believable experience.

On a more personal note:
Having lived in Thailand for years, I could relate to a lot of the experiences the main character went through and I found myself laughing out loud in places and nodding my head quite a few times, for many of the stories he committed to paper all those years ago are still valid to this day.

Reading this book made me remember the day I arrived in Bangkok. The heat was the first thing I got to experience. That moment when I stepped out the airport was my first and one of the strongest memories about Thailand. Within minutes my shirt was sticking to my back and my skin felt clammy and hot and I found it difficult to breathe.
Many years have passed since then. I got used to the heat and humidity (not a fan of cold weather anyway) and many other things, like the spicy food, geckos running up the walls in the house, the snakes and monitor lizards in the yard, and the list goes on.

For someone who has never been to Thailand this book can be a good place to start finding out about the country. Even though no amount of reading can compare with the experience of living here, 'Letters from Thailand' is a book I would recommend to anyone who wants to get an idea of what life can be like in The Land of Smiles.

[Pairash Pleanmalai · Rating 5 out of 5]

หนังสือดี..อ่านแค่หน้าแรกๆ เราก็ติดแล้ว ด้วยสำนวนที่น่าอ่าน สมกับเป็น 1 ใน 100 เล่มที่คนไทยควรอ่าน
เนื้อหาเหมาะกับเยาวชนอ่านเป็นอย่างยิ่ง (แต่เดาว่าคงไม่ถูกใจคนอายุน้อยๆอีก) เสียดายที่โดนตัดออกจากการเป็นหนังสือ
นอกเวลาเรียน (เขาบอกว่าเนื้อหาเก่าแล้ว...จริงๆผมว่ายังใช้ได้อยู่ตลอด แต่อาจกลัวการเข้าใจผิดในบางประเด็นสะมากกว่า)

ขณะอ่านเรื่องนี้ มักได้ยินเสียงเพลง ลอดลายมังกร ก้องอยู่ในหัวตลอดเวลา "จากแผ่นดินจีนโพ้นทะเล ด้วยเรือน้อยล่องลอยสุดไกลแสนไกล หอบติดมาเสื่อผืนหมอนใบ สู่อ่าวไทยแผ่นดินสยาม ...."
หรือ เพลงวิหคพลัดถิ่น ของคาราบาว "เมื่อแดนดินแม่กันดาร จิตวิญญาณของก๋งล่องลอย เก็บเสื่อหมอนของใช้นิดหน่อย
เจ้านกน้อยโผบินจากรัง"

หนังสือเก่ากว่า 40 ปี ไม่น่าเชื่อว่า ทำไมเนื้อหามันยังใช้ได้ตลอด หลายๆเรื่องยังเป็นจริงในสังคมไทย
ช่างเป็นกระจกที่สะท้อนความเป็นเราได้ดี (จริงๆก็คือ ว่าเรานั้นแหละ แต่ไม่รู้สึกเจ็บ เพราะมันจริง)

อ่านๆไปก็เริ่มสงสัยว่ามันเรื่องจริง หรือเรื่องแต่ง เพราะผู้แต่งแต่งได้เหมือนจริงมาก เหมือนเป็นจดหมายจากเมืองไทยไปจีน แล้วถูกยึดไว้ตั้งร้อยฉบับจริงๆ แล้วเล่มที่อ่านไม่มีคำนำสะด้วย

เสียดายตอนจบ อยากให้ยืดไปอีกสักบท เล่นจบแบบหนัง GDH เลย

[Andrew]

Sometimes recommended as a definitive work about the Thai-Chinese experience, I’m not sure how well this sits with me as a reader in the here and now.

Basically, it’s a mid-century Thai version of a Victorian epistolary novel of the sort that once entranced girls in nightgowns around the world. The kind that opens with a starry-eyed young immigrant who quickly becomes an increasingly cantankerous, conservative, but ultimately good Chinese immigrant father (how many Sundance movies you seen that in?), and finishes with the best of the future, as represented by a successdaughter who speaks four languages and openly discusses the pill (it was written in the ‘60s) and gets the presumably hot Dark Academia husband (thanks Jo March).

That paragraph came out bitchier than expected, but I can’t say this is a bad novel or anything of the sort (and the translation is excellent as well, did my best to cross-reference, solid work for the parts I saw and within my limited knowledge of linguistic subtlety). And I think it does in many ways reflect, honestly, the immigrant experience in Thailand, at least as it is reflected in the people I know (see: my friend’s grouchy Chinese dad who counts the mangoes in the trees to make sure no one’s taking them and grouses about how his family won't eat the sea cucumber). It’s just totally not my speed. I am insufficiently nightgowned.

[Alien Bookreader]

Available here:
https://archive.org/details/lettersfr...

[Mam Thailand · Rating 5 out of 5]

เป็นหนังสือที่ดีมาก ๆ ให้แค่ 5 ดาวยังน้อยไป หนังสือหนา 600 กว่าหน้าแต่ไม่อยากให้จบเลย อ่านแล้วไม่ได้เกิดความรู้สึกว่าเป็นการดูถูกคนไทยแม้แต่น้อย ดิฉันอมยิ้มเสียมากกว่าเวลานายตันส่วงอู๋วิพากษ์คนไทย (ซึ่งไม่ใช่ทั้งหมดที่เป็นแบบนั้น) แล้วก็เห็นใจนายตันส่วงอู๋ด้วยที่พากเพียรเขียนจดหมายไปหามารดาที่เมืองจีนโดยไม่เคยได้จดหมายตอบกลับแม้แต่ฉบับเดียว แต่ก็เขียนอยู่ได้จนถึง 100 ฉบับ เป็นเพราะความรู้สึกผิดที่เป็นลูกชายคนโตแต่กลับหนีมาอยู่เมืองไทย และเมื่อตัวเองมีครอบครัว ลูกชายคนโตก็ทำให้ผิดหวังที่สุดเช่นกัน ซึ่งท้ายที่สุดแกก็เข้าใจความเป็นไปของโลก สังคมและเมืองไทยที่ต้องเปลี่ยนแปลงอยู่ตลอดเวลา

[Rachel Langer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so glad I read this book. It was beautifully transcribed and very relevant as I am currently in Thailand. It opened my eyes to the cultural differences between the Chinese and Thai people and to challenges of living in one country but trying to maintain the cultures of the other. I highly recommend!!

[Sovatha · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is said in the introduction that this book was based on the actual letters written for over twenty years by a Chinese migrant who came to work in Bangkok. So technically, it's not a fiction. But this book reads pretty much like a very good novel that would get you hooked to it after you finish the first few pages. It starts from when this Chinese migrant, whose pseudonym is Sang U, was on the boat from China and goes all the way up and down through his life in Bangkok until more than 20 years later. The thing is that of this period of time he was writing these letters to his mum in China, he never received any reply back from her. How a person can keep writing letters for 20 years without getting a reply back? Only Saeng U knows the answer. I thought it was a good 'novel' to read in that it shows the actual emotion, and feeling of a Chinese man determined to build his fortune, life and family in a new land while trying to hold on tight to his Chinese identity and tradition. He was successful in a number of things, business is one of them; and not successful in others - raising his son to meet his expectation is an example. In a way, these letters were the means to vent his frustration when things do not go the ways he wanted, and his means to share his joy when things were falling into place. Throughout these letters, you also get to learn about how this Chinese man viewed the Thai society and its people. It is well established that the Chinese have been successful in assimilating into Thai society. But it was not such an easy statement to make for Saeng U and we got to learn why in this book. Overall, a good read for anyone interested in a non-fiction, historical 'novel' (I put novel in parenthesis because it's not really a novel) and in overseas Chinese in Thailand.

[André Souto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entrei em contato com "Cartas da Tailândia" por acaso. Para uma disciplina de graduação, molhava os pés no conceito de "rede de bambu" no sudeste asiático, quando pela relação com o tema, me deparei pela primeira vez com o título. Era 2021 na ocasião, e desde então não deixei de pensar no título - que jurei ler um dia quando houvesse oportunidade. Mas, de fato, nunca tinha havido oportunidade até agora. Apesar de um marco da literatura tailandesa moderna, foi muito dificil encontrar um exemplar que 1. não precisasse ser importado, e 2. não custasse absurdos. Até enfim encontrar por acaso em um sebo em Brasília - assinado como presente de Giles Ji Ungpakorn ao falecido diplomata Arnaldo Carrilho. Finalmente tinha nas mãos essa jóia, que parece quase privativa à Tailândia, e cujo exemplar pertenceu a gigantes.

Trata-se de uma coletânea de cartas de um jovem chinês em Bangkok para sua mãe na vila de que veio, escritas ao longo de mais de vinte anos (dos meados dos anos '40 até o final dos anos '60). Cartas, essas, que nunca chegaram ao vilarejo: conta o censor real que foram confiscadas de um carteiro chinês que confessara nunca ter entregue as cartas, por se interessar demais pela história do remetente. E que, por se pegar igualmente intrigado pela história e pela crua verdade de seu conteúdo, fazia publicar essas cartas.

Cartas contando de como o jovem Tsuang U fugia do (ainda) vilarejo de Po Leng no sul da China, pela promessa de riqueza e prosperidade que as histórias vindas da Tailândia continham. E Tsuang U não é uma pessoa real, diz a nota de tradução, mas um mosaico da experiência dos cidadãos de Bangkok, nestas primeiras horas da alvorada da globalização em que a modernidade começa a nascer das ruínas da Segunda Guerra.

E talvez por isso seja tão difícil escrever a respeito do livro que é famosamente controverso entre a comunidade tailandesa, por sentirem-se insultados pela forma como o protagonista descreve e retrata tailandeses; embora seja também controverso entre a comunidade chinesa, pelo forma revoltante com que (dizem) são retratados no livro. É um jogo entre a tensão étnica, a tensão de classe, a tensão linguística e a tensão de gênero, tão confusa e distintamente absorvida e processada pelas pessoas em seu dia-a-dia.

Temas fortes que relacionam a tentativa da manutenção do próprio senso de comunidade e de si, com a sobrevivência da cultura como migrante, com a reprodução de flagelos que este conservadorismo traz, e finalmente com a forma como tudo isso se traduz nas relações familiares, em suas dores e alegrias, e nos próprios ideais de cada um. Tudo isso enquanto um novo mundo surge em um piscar de olhos. É uma experiência única ver como um garoto que vem à Bangkok em busca de prosperidade e de dinheiro para enviar para casa, se torna gradualmente um homem conservador e racista, embora sem deixar de ser a exata mesma pessoa que veio - jovial, esperançosa e, mais importante, temerária pelo futuro próprio e de sua família.

É impossível também ignorar o quanto relações de gênero e direitos reprodutivos são centrais ao livro. Botan, autora mulher, filha de fazendeiros que não criam importante que tivesse uma educação (e que mesmo assim frequentou a universidade), muito felizmente deixa bastante claro o quão central é o assunto quando se trata de reprodução humana como reprodução cultural. O papel do casamento, o papel da família, a subordinação feminina, a expectativa de filhos meninos tidos por filhos meninos, a dor de se ter filhas meninas, da divisão sexual do trabalho. E a bem consruída tridimensionalidade das personagens femininas do livro é fundamental para isso.

Por causas dessa difíceis nuances, foi um livro que me emocionou muito e que fui incapaz de parar de pensar sobre, mesmo quando era obrigado a largá-lo pelas obrigações do dia. É bonito vê-lo ser acolhido; triste vê-lo magoar pessoas para previnir uma miséria que seus filhos (graças a ele) jamais sentirão; revoltante vê-lo renegar quem o ama em virtude da manutenção de suas tradições; aliviante vê-lo aos poucos se abrir novamente ao mundo. E agridoce vê-lo finalmente parar de escrever após sentir-se capaz de fitar o passado e vislumbrar o futuro sem se desequilibrar.

A linha tênue entre como a união da comunidade é capaz de levar as pessoas adiante, mas como o apego conservador à reprodução cultural por si só é mesquinha, tacanha e envenenante. Talvez a questão seja que a empatia, a bondade e o carinho que Tsuang U recebeu ao chegar nessas terras a ele estrangeiras (e por ele conquistadas), deveriam ser o norte pelo qual conduzir seu senso comunitário; não as unhas e dentes com as quais lutava contra a passagem do tempo, confundindo isso com a manutenção da solidariedade de outrora.

Facilmente uma das melhores leituras que fiz durante o ano; talvez ao longo da vida. Uma lástima que seja uma obra tão pouco publicada, traduzida e conhecida.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

We just returned from a Christmas trip to Thailand last week. I read this book because my sister-in-law, also on the trip, bought it, and finished it on the flight home. I really wish I had read it before we got there, because it gave me a lot to think about, and I would have looked for items and locations mentioned. A lot of the "action" takes place on the main street in Chinatown, Bangkok, which we did visit.

This is the story of a young Chinese man who emigrated to Thailand after WWII. But his story is timeless and universal. The struggle for an immigrant to preserve his country's traditions; the struggle for a father to understand his children in a rapidly changing world...I saw a lot of my own family in Suang U's story.

The tale is told through letters that Suang U writes to his mother in the old village. Over the years the letters become a type of therapy for him. The fact that (this is not a spoiler, it's in the prologue) his mother never sees the letters, and they are discovered years later, make the tale all the more poignant.

This book was soundly protested when it was originally published: it discusses prejudices between Chinese and Thai. But they are discussed honestly throughout the book, and I am thankful that cooler heads prevailed, and this book became a best seller, able to be translated and sold abroad.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in family stories. The struggles, conflicts, and lessons learned can be applied to any culture, any race.

[Gijs Grob · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this epistolary novel Suang U, a Chinese immigrant in Bangkok writes letters to his mother in a small village in China. Through his letters we watch Suang U starting a career in Bangkok, falling in love, getting children, expanding his business, and watching his children grow up. Soon Suang U turns out to be a very conservative man, way too old fashioned for his years. Suang U is against ca. everything new, whether it be radio, cars or television. Moreover, he is appallingly anti-Thai, despite Thailand being his new home country. Unfortunately, because of this his letters too often become endless complaints and rants of a grumpy man, giving the novel an unwanted repetitive character. Only in the end Suang U warms up, but by then much damage has been done.

The poignancy of Botan's novel lies in the fact that Suang U with his strict conservative stance unwillingly severely hampers the lives of his offspring, which Botan shows between Suang U's lines with great subtlety. It's remarkable how lively she has portrayed this flawed and complex character, when she herself was only twenty years old. This is a real tour-de-force, even if the novel could use some (more) editing.

[Nisha Sachdev · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't put down the book.


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.

[Jon Kapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic read as historical fiction and as a snapshot into Bangkok/Thailand at a particular time and place. The book transcends that place however to tell an immigrants story of coping with new culture and establishing individual identity in a new place.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is great. You should put it on your "to read" list.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good portrait of Thai/Chinese relations and what Thailand was like a few decades ago.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appreciated my friend sending me this book while I was living in Thailand. This book is fashioned as a series of letters from a Chinese immigrant to Bangkok back to his mother who is still living in China. In many ways it reads like a journal but having the audience of another (and the specific relationship as well) gives the writing urgency and life.

This book is over 50 years old and written by a Thai person to reflect the period of time 10-20 years before her. Also she writes from the voice of a Chinese immigrant and I found that fascinating. Through his eyes she experiences the prejudices and injustices of being a Chinese immigrant as well as seeing the Thai people through his own culturally tinted glasses. So the book functions as an interesting anthropological/cross-cultural tale.

But what I found it to be most interested in was telling the story of an immigrant who raises a family, who succeeds and yet also fails and finds himself in a more humble place. All i n all a wonderful story and one I would recommend. I think as someone who has lived in Thailand, it did make the world come alive and even the ways the characters stereotype each other felt real, even in its uncomfortability.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating novel that is written a series of letters from Chinese emigrant, Tan Suang U, to his mother back in his home village in China. He has come to Thailand just after WWII in hopes of finding a way to make a fortune or at least a good living. He ends up staying, marrying, having children, operating a successful business in Bangkok's Chinatown.

The book does a great job of comparing life in China to life in Thailand - noting cultural attitudes, activities, and food among other things. While some might be under the impression that all Southeast Asians are alike, this book points out both similarities and major differences.

The book is a classic in Thailand. Written by Botan (a pseudonym for Supa Sirisingh) in 1971 and translated to English in 2002. It has a slow-moving plot, but a multitude of interesting facts and opinions.

[Lynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written as letters to his mother over 40 years, the book follows a young man as he leaves China to move to Bangkok and the struggles to find his place in this new world, his prejudice against the Thai mentality towards work, the Thai prejudice against the Chinese as he finds a wife, raises children, loses a "father" who adopted him in Thailand and starts, grows and maintains a business. Over time his feelings towards his wife and family change, his is both disappointing as a father and disappointed. He grows over the years and is able to accept that perhaps his views aren't in keeping with modern values as he ages. All the while with no word back from the mother he writes.

[Edwin Pietersma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book that I wanted to read for a long time, regarded as a classic of Thai literature. As the translator notes, it is about a guy who settled in the Chinese neighborhood Yaowarat, Bangkok, right after the war. He hopes to get rich quick and then be able to return to his family home, trying to be devout to his own culture, traditions, and ideas, even to the utmost extent. In my opinion, he is not, as a critic states “claustrophobically preoccupied with the small world of Bangkok’s Chinatown,” but rather someone who could or did not want to make it back home, tried his luck somewhere else, and just assumed that it would not affect or change them. This is not merely against two different cultures (Thai and Chinese), for which he believes there are no positive sides to his new country and their people from the few he met, but also against time. We see him grow and, in the final end, change, which is a remarkable process to witness. For anyone interested in literature, this is a must-read. As the translator notes: “Letters from Thailand is the kind of novel one reads straight through, and then reads again, a year or five years later.” The different facets of this work will stay with me, even in those years to come, and I wonder how I will feel when I read it again, for that is sure.

[Christine Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Botan is the pen name of Supa Sirisingh (née Luesiri, born 1945 in Thonburi, Bangkok), one of Thailand’s most celebrated novelists. She is best known internationally for Letters from Thailand (1969), which won the SEATO Literary Award and remains a landmark in Thai literature.

Botan’s Letters from Thailand, translated by Susan Fulop Kepner, unfolds as a series of letters from Tan Suang U, a Chinese immigrant in postwar Bangkok, to his mother in China. Through this epistolary lens, the novel captures the tension between tradition and assimilation, as Tan’s rigid values clash with the evolving Thai society—and with his own children.

The narrative is deceptively simple: daily life, business dealings, family drama. But beneath it runs a current of cultural dislocation and generational fracture. Tan is not always likable—his judgments are harsh, his worldview patriarchal—but he’s rendered with such precision that his contradictions feel painfully human.

What makes the novel remarkable is its refusal to romanticize either homeland or host country. Thailand is not exoticized; China is not idealized. Instead, Botan offers a portrait of migration as erosion—of certainty, of identity, of familial bonds.

[Marie Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gelezen tijdens mijn vakantie in Thailand, een 'lokaal' boek geeft een extra kleuring aan zo'n verblijf. Zo ook deze roman, die Thailand beschrijft door de ogen van een Chinese immigrant in de jaren 50/60. Je krijgt de visie mee van de immigrant op Thailand en leert over het leven van de Chinese gemeenschap daar en hoe die integreert. Tegelijkertijd verandert ook de wereld met de opkomst van jeugdcultuur in de jaren 60, waarmee de hoofdpersoon flink worstelt. Ondanks al deze cultuurclashes is het boek vlot leesbaar, geschreven met mooie personages.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Letters from Thailand captures in fiction so many realities about a specific experience: Thailand's burgeoning modernization in the 1950s; Chinese immigrants to Bangkok forming an ethnic enclave; tensions between first and second generation immigrant families; defining cultural identities; and aging. This epistolary novel from a son writing to his mother back in China is endearing, funny, and insightful.

[Jaisette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining read. Though it's the life story of a Chinese immigrant trying to keep a hold of his culture while living his life in Thailand, I could relate to a lot of the traditions he clung to.

I felt for the guy and his family and was intrigued by the strong female characters and the macho yet delicate nature of the main character.

[Melanie Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ordered this book in order to learn more about Thai culture by reading fiction, but instead I learned a great deal about the Chinese immigration experience in Thailand, and about Chinese culture. It was still a wonderful read. You will be quickly drawn into the narrator's family. It is written in first person as a series of letters to the author's mother in rural China.

[Shannen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This one will be a repeat read in the future. I happened upon this book for sale at my local Friends of the Library and I am ever grateful for it. Beautiful, poignant and fascinating. If you can somehow find a copy of this one, I recommend it. Would love to do this one as a book club book because there are so many things to talk about. A happy find indeed!

[Rene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book many years ago, but I remember vividly that it impressed me very much. It was the first novel I read by a Thai author. Several have followed since. The novel is about Thai-Chinese relations and it is written in the form of letters. I found this a very good choice. It makes the book a more realistic.

[Melita · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Indonesian-Chinese who has been to Thailand for 8 years, this book is 'ok' interesting. It shows me a lot of where my background or my family background comes from. But overall i can only give 4 stars for this book because it's not written (or translated) too nicely… but after all it's letters, so it's probably understandable. And I don't find too much interesting new things in it.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome book! Especially for a perspective on living in Bangkok from WWII to the mid/late 1960s, through the eyes of a Chinese immigrant. I don't think there are many books that fall into that category. This was really interesting to me, as an expat in Bangkok.

[Dhanita · Rating 5 out of 5]

วิธีเล่าเรื่องที่แปลก ผ่านจดหมายที่เขียนกลับบ้านของชายชาวจีนโพ้นทะเลที่ไปอยู่เมืองไทย จากเสื่อผืนหมอนใบดิ้นรนดำเนินชีวิตจนมีครอบครัวแลฐานะ ลุ้นไปกับเรื่องราว ชีวิตและรักของเขา อ่านสนุก มากๆ

[Sophara Iridescent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it ! Very truthful & relatable.