Harry Nicolaides' Weekly Column

Exclusively for Phuket-Info.com

The last Shangri-La

When Columbus sailed centuries ago he discovered a new world. This created a tide of change in the affairs of all men reaching the shores of every continent as exploration, imperialism, trade and eventually tourism. Ever since, a long, venerable literary tradition has grown around the experiences of tourists and expatriates abroad.
Thai Girl, the acclaimed best-selling novel by Andrew Hicks is a looking glass into Thailand and its people as they come to terms with the bejeweled and bewitching images and symbols of a monarchy in decline, the encroachment of Western materialism on traditional agrarian values and the birth of a new cultural identity conceived in the monsoon storms that flare up in purple and blue arcs in the Gulf of Siam and then carried north into the hinterland of Isaan with love and sacrifice.

Reviewed by a galaxy of newspapers and magazines including The Guardian UK, The Nation, Pattaya Mail and Big Chilli, smashing sales expectations while remaining the top-selling English language novel in Thailand and in its umpteenth reprinting, Thai Girl has beaten a shipwreck of other books to become the definitive novel about relationships between Thai nationals and foreigners. Asia Books proudly distributes the book to its flagship stores where it has proved to be consistently the strongest selling book written by an expatriate about Thailand.

In the age of the ubiquitous internet and the neon glow of computerized, digitized video images beaming out into the dark skies of Bangkok, the city of angels, Andrew Hicks has shown that a tale told with honesty and insight where every word pushes the story forward to a conclusion that is poignant and profound is still compelling after all these years. What begins as a story about the intoxication of romantic love between a British tourist and a Thai girl working in the service industry ends by making a statement about the impact of globalization on the shores of the Third World.

Thai Girl is fleshed out in the deftly-crafted dialogue between the key characters of Ben, Fon and Emma. The eternal themes of love, identity and conflict are explored with sensitivity and insight while the rich and intricate rural landscape of Fon’s village in Buriram is rendered with impressionistic sensibility. This is a land where harvest cycles are constantly disrupted by the vicissitudes of nature but also homage to the triumph of raw-boned peasant tenacity in the face of great adversity. This is the story of the mass migration of a generation of young girls from the rural north of Thailand to the tourist zones of the south. This is an account of their struggle, journey and discovery of new worlds from across the seas. This is the story of Ben, Emma and Fon. This may be your story. It was mine.

Note: Thai Girl is dedicated to the migrant workers of Thailand who, through force of circumstance, leave their land and families in search of a livelihood elsewhere. In particular it is dedicated to those from Isaan, the arid North East region, who provide an endless supply of cheap labour for the modern economy and who in consequence are now losing a traditional way of life and values that are the essence of rural Thailand.

In Thailand
Distributed by Asia Books to leading bookshops. Ask for Thai Girl at any bookshop. If not in stock, ask them to order it from Asia Books quoting ISBN974-92003-4-9 OR - call Asia Books Customer Service Department on (66) 0-2715-9000
email information@asiabooks.com
visit www.asiabooks.com

Orders Worldwide
'Thai Girl' can be bought online from a reputable website in Thailand.
Visit www.dcothai.com
Any queries to andrew@thaigirl2004.com.

THAI GIRL
First published 2004. Copyright © Andrew Hicks 2004.
ISBN974-92003-4-9

Published in Thailand by
TYS Co., Ltd
12th Floor, KSL Tower
503 Sri Ayudhya, Rajthevi, Bangkok 10400
Tel:(66) 0-2597-5398; Fax (66) 0-2597-5399
Email: andrew@thaigirl2004.com

Harry Nicolaides

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