A missionary doctor pines for his native New England even as he succumbs to the vibrant chaos of nineteenth-century Siam. A post-World War II society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting her solitary fate. A jazz pianist in the age of rock, haunted by his own ghosts, is summoned to appease the house's resident spirits. In the present, a young woman tries to outpace the long shadow of her political past. And in a New Krungthep yet to come, savvy teenagers row tourists past landmarks of the drowned old city they themselves do not remember. Time collapses as these lives collide and converge, linked by the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibious, ever-morphing capital itself.

In parts it was evocative of Bangkok. The sounds you hear walking the streets, the people, the food. Some vignettes were better than others. Some I didn't work out how they connected until later in the book.

Not a quick read. I frequently had to put it down and walk away for a bit.

Wishlist Tag Release. You've been tagged!

It's here!

Thanks for the tag amberC, looks great.




A house in the center of Bangkok becomes the point of confluence where lives are shaped by upheaval, memory, and the lure of home. Witness to two centuries' flux in one of the world's most restless cities, a house plays host to longings and losses past, present, and future. A nineteenth-century missionary doctor pines for the comforts of New England even as he finds the vibrant foreign chaos of Siam increasingly difficult to resist. A post-war society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting the course of her future. A jazz pianist is summoned in the 1970s to conjure music that will pacify resident spirits, even as he's haunted by ghosts of his former life. Not long after, a young woman gives swimming lessons in the luxury condos that have eclipsed the old house, trying to outpace the long shadow of her political past. And in the post-submergence Bangkok of the future, a band of savvy teenagers guides tourists and former residents past waterlogged, ruined landmarks, selling them tissues to wipe their tears for places they themselves do not remember. Time collapses as these stories collide and converge, linked by blood, memory, yearning, chance, and the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibian, ever-morphing city itself. Bangkok Wakes to Rain is a wildly imaginative, mesmerizing reading experience from an author at the beginning of what promises to be a thrilling career" . . .

Such a gorgeous novel, drawing me into the lives of the characters and the city itself. There are echoes of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas with interconnected stories spanning two centuries which weave around each other and back and forward through time until what at first appears to be bunch of unrelated short stories all come to be interlinked in their connections between people and form a coherent narrative. Here the linkages are tighter, and grounded (mostly) within the city of Bangkok, and even more particularly connected to one building.

It was rather surreal in a way for me to be reading the sections about Bangkok flooding at exactly the same time as large swathes of the eastern section of my own country are experiencing a similar thing.

I really enjoyed reading this layered novel, finding it to be a creative and moving exploration of connection, estrangement, memory, and longing. Some of the novel is a bit choppy, but it’s an outstanding debut with respect to both conception and execution, and the writing is just lovely. I’ll certainly be very happy to read Sudbanthad’s next offering.


Now reserved for the OZ VBB.

Heading eastward as was chosen from the OZ VBB by jeniwren.
Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks arrived today safe and sound :)