Comrade Aeon's Field Guide to Bangkok

Description

In Bangkok, a plot of land behind a city slum resonates with the hopes, dreams and fears of the local community. For Comrade Aeon, a homeless insurgent who fled to the jungle after a military crackdown on student protestors in 1976, it's a verdant refuge and the place from which he documents the underbelly of the city. For Ida Barnes, an ex-pat whose husband may be cheating on her, it's an inviting retreat. For Witty, an urbane property developer married to one of the city's most famous movie stars, it's a 'Bangkok Unicorn' - that rare chance to make his mark on the Bangkok skyline. But the slum-dwelling spirits who guard its secrets know that it holds a much darker history, that it masks the silent politics at the heart of Thai culture. Written with a tender compassion for Bangkok's people and customs, Comrade Aeon's Field Guide to Bangkok is a masterful, propulsive debut which introduces a fresh new talent in fiction.

EMMA LARKIN grew up in Bangkok and still lives in Thailand. She is the author of Finding George Orwell in Burma and Everything is Broken.

Emma Larkin richly and vividly brings her characters to life, revealing the drama of their existence through a multifaceted look at Thai society. Comrade Aeon's Field Guide to Bangkok is a captivating tour de force * Alaa Al Aswany * Endearing... enlightening... an affecting and suspenseful portrait of contemporary Bangkok * Literary Review * A complicated paean to a complicated city [...] an intricate portrait of contemporary Bangkok that is, at once, dystopian and magnificent * South China Post * Wonderfully imaginative and realistically detailed... In her debut novel, [Larkin] displays a kind of anthropological authenticity that transcends language -- Kong Rithdee * Nikkei Asia *