Pitchaya Sudbanthad's Bangkok Wakes to Rain is a kaleidoscope of perspectives and stories: a flurry of lives that pass by each other, inhabit the same spaces and impact their city. Reminiscent of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, this is a novel comprised of many stories that crisscross and break apart, forming a fractured, buzzing depiction of one of the world's great metropolises.
With no strict chronology, Bangkok Wakes to Rain follows inhabitants of a building in the middle of the city from the 19th century to the near future, when Bangkok has collapsed under the chaos from climate change. Characters meet for brief periods, connecting with one another incidentally or merely by calling the building home during some point of their lives. While not explicitly political, the tales focus on outsiders: those removed from typical Thai society due to ethnic background, personal history or simple geography. Each story resonates like part of a choir singing in harmony.
The most central characters are Nee and Mai, two women of different generations who meet at the building. Nee, who is older and is Mai's swimming instructor, took part in the 1973 popular uprising, losing her lover and innocence in the violence. Mai, a child of the millennium, watches the future overtake her home city, and eventually comes face to face with the consequences of human inaction on climate. Both women struggle for connection while attempting to assert themselves amid the changing politics and culture of their eras.
Juggling a dozen plotlines over an extended period of time is quite a feat. It takes a little while for Sudbanthad to get everything up and running, but once he does, reading Bangkok Wakes to Rain feels like watching a spinning top stay perfectly upright. The stories move together to create a potent, elegiac whole, expertly evoking the sorrow that can come with nostalgia and showing how loss in the past echoes on into the future.
This is an assured debut, a testament to Sudbanthad's skill that he succeeds at such a conceptually and formally challenging work. Those who have never seen Thailand can conjure up images of Bangkok past and present, and even peek into its possible future. Bangkok Wakes to Rain is a beautiful, wistful piece of place-making. --Noah Cruickshank, adult engagement manager, the Field Museum, Chicago, Ill.
Shelf Talker: Bangkok Wakes to Rain is an elegiac novel that beautifully depicts the Thai capital from past into the near future.