I’m an avid reader and was wondering if anyone had recommendations on the best Thai literature. By this I mean written by Thais that is of a high quality and translated into English. Could either be classical (ie old) or contemporary.

Jasmine Nights by SP Somtow is a cracking read

Letters from Thailand by Botan is another......

You might try "Four Reigns" by Kukrit Pramoj. I enjoyed it very much. It is the story of a young woman's life from the timr of King Chula through to Rama VIII. The form is of a conventional Western novel, but the society described through is Thai.

Kukrit Pramoj was a interesting man. Born to a family of the Ayutthaya aristocracy, his career went beyond writing to politics. He served as Prime Minister briefly during the 70's. If you ever saw the movie "The Ugly American" Pramoj played the part of the local politician opposite Marlon Brando.

Would like to hear any recommendations from you on Thai lit, as well.

Khun Pad Thai

I’m an avid reader and was wondering if anyone had recommendations on the best Thai literature.  By this I mean written by Thais that is of a high quality and translated into English.  Could either be classical (ie old) or contemporary.

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I have looked for the same without success. I was told there are no Thai counterparts to Tolstoy, Turgenev or other classic literary writers if that is what you're looking for.

Thanks Chonabot – I looked up both “Jasmine Nights” and “Letters from Thailand” and both looked very good so I ordered them. Good reviews on amazon.com.

KhunPadThai "Four Reigns" also sounds good also so now that’s on the reading list. Thanks to you. Wish I had recommendations for you but as in so much Thai I’m a newbie – but as they say “you start at the beginning”

Khun Larry – yes I suspect that might be true, the novel is in itself a relatively new convention and it seems to me even in Western culture it didn’t really blossom until the 19th century (but wow what a century of literature it was!). In any event I decided to cast the net wide just in case there is something old and interesting but suspected that more contemporary was likely. Which is not to degrade contemporary. I won’t try to say who among the contemporary authors I read might be “classic” two hundred years from now but from this vantage point I’d say that the continuum of Upton Sinclair, Saul Bellow, John Updike and now Richard Russo are a great chronicle of 20th century America life and psyche. Likewise Marquez, Fuentes, and the other great Latin writers are doing for that for their culture. So hopefully Pad Thai and Chonabot have started me down a path. Amazon.com is helpful because with a few good books to start you just need to find out what other books people who read that book are reading and away you go…

Thanks all.

I think Jusmine Nights was originally written in English.

I've never heard he wrote a novel in Thai.