Books set in Thailand

About the literature of Thailand

Thailand's national epic is the Ramakien, a Thai retelling of the Ramayana whose best-known version was produced under King Rama I. In the nineteenth century the poet Sunthorn Phu wrote the verse romance Phra Aphai Mani, and he is still honoured as the country's great poet. Many writers work in Thai, though some, like Rattawut Lapcharoensap, write in English. Kukrit Pramoj, who also served as prime minister, wrote Four Reigns, a Bangkok family saga across four kings' reigns, from palace life to the end of absolute monarchy.

Chart Korbjitti's The Judgment shows a villager shunned after false gossip, in a story shaped by small-community morality and Buddhist fatalism. Pira Sudham's Monsoon Country traces a poor boy's childhood among the rice farmers of Isan, in the northeast. Rattawut's Sightseeing gathers short stories that range from tourist beach towns to Bangkok households.