It is the People eBook

An anthology of Pira Sudham’s short stories previously published in Tales of Thailand and People of Esarn. Pira Sudham writes in English stories reflecting life in the Northeast of Thailand where he was raised. The stories show the harshness of peasant life in last few decades of the Twentieth Century including land loss and the affect of the sex trade.

This ebook edition includes Pira Sudham's outstanding stories on the life of a prostitute, an adventure of a young Isan girl in search of love in Germany, a reflection on being an Englishman's wife, a tale of survival of a little guttersnipe in the streets of Bangkok, an Italian's reflection on living in Asia, a narrative on being a street food seller in Bangkok and the lamentation of a little monk.

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Monsoon Country

Monsoon Country is Pira Sudham's best known novel. Much like Pira's own life it follows a poor farmer's son from the North-East to Bangkok and as an overseas student in England. In this novel you will get an insider's view of poverty and corruption in Thailand's poorest area, the Esarn. Starting in 1954 and ending in 1980 it covers a period of of immense change in Thailand, the clash of Western and Thai values, the student movement and the military repression of the 1970's.

From Monsoon Country - Liberty is a foreign word, found on a coin a foreigner dropped in the palm of my hand, but it has taken me years to fully understand its meaning; it has taken the death of Rit, a fair boy from the North; it has taken the disappearance of Kumjai. Liberty! When I go to England there will surely be more words to understand and remember. It seems that each new word takes me farther afield, always away from Napo.

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The Force of Karma

The long-awaited sequel to Pira Sudham's Nobel Prize nominated novel Monsoon Country

In churning childhood memories into a captivating recollection of the lives of the Surins in impoverished Esarn, in Monsoon Country (1954-1981), Pira Sudham did not stray far from the realities. Being much concerned with rampant corruption, he could no longer hide under the cloak of a public relations consultant in Bangkok when the saga has to cover the tumultuous years of 1981-2001 in The Force of Karma. Hence he decided to take Goliath and Company into the cauldron.

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Shadowed Country

Monsoon Country and its sequel The Force of Karma have been revised and brought together by Pira Sudham in one volume. A big book for a big subject!

Shadowed Country is undeniably Pira Canning Sudham's acme in his literary endeavour. Since his early years of reading English literature in universities in New Zealand and Australia, Sudham has been craftily practising his art, employing the English language to impart vital messages in People of Esarn, Tales of Thailand and Monsoon Country. The latter is the first book of Shadowed Country. Much is tacitly done, of course, while he courageously covers actual occurrences. He seems to say: "The marked men, who have been able to get away even with murders, must not escape. "Widely he casts his punitive net. He also draws from personal experiences so that the reality fuses with imagination, making it appear that Shadowed Country is the author's biography in disguise.

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Tales of Thailand

A collection of short stories, most from his first collection, Siamese Drama, published in 1983 plus two new stories. The stories deal with modern rural life in Thailand and the changes and problems occurring there.

From the story The Gunman - I knew from a newspaper that he was a teacher, and that morning when I shot him, he was on his way from his house to lead a protest against the leasing of a rain forest from the Department of Forestry by the wife of a powerful and wealthy politician. But I did not know for sure who wanted him dead. A hired gunman is not hired directly by the people who want their enemies killed...

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People of Esarn

Short stories and essays on some of the major issues facing Thailand; child prostitution, the rape of the forests, the killing of rural activists and dying rivers and soil in the North-East.

From the story A Thai Woman in Germany - "I remember you. It was in Pattaya in 1977, when you saw me for the first time at the Holiday Inn where you used to work as a manger. Maybe you wouldn't recall that it was me whom you stopped in front of the lift one night when were on duty. You tried to prevent me from going up to the room with a farang, asking him to register me first before he could take me to his room. You tried to explain to him so politely that it was a hotel regulation for the security of guests. And for such a registration, you asked him to pay 350 Baht extra. I remember also that all that while, you pretended you did not care who I was. You ignored me quite completely, but I could guess what you were thinking: "The farang is taking this whore up to his room. Boy, doesn't she look it. When you have seen one, you have seen them them all in Pattaya."

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