When travellers Ben and Emma come to blows on the idyllic Thai island of Koh Samet, it’s not long before Ben falls for Fon, a flirtatious but enigmatic beach masseuse, and is forced to come to terms with the darker side of tourism in Thailand.
As Ben parties on the beaches with travellers from around the world and experiences the raunchy nightlife of Bangkok, he is drawn deeper into the harsh reality of his island paradise. The closer he is to Fon, the sparkling Thai girl of his dreams, the more he realizes what it means to be truly poor and what drives farmers’ daughters away from their homes to sell their bodies in the bars of Bangkok.
On the surface Thai Girl is an endearing romantic adventure novel; at another level it explores some of the disturbing issues affecting a fast-developing country and its people as well as the problems associated with cross-cultural relationships. Hicks weaves a gripping and thought-provoking narrative that reaches its climax in the sultry heat of Thailand’s exotic traveller beaches.
Pub Date: Jan 2006 | Price: S$22.50 | Paperback (B format) 336pp
Fiction | ISBN: 978-981-05-3918-4 | Territory: World ex-Thailand
Andrew Hicks first came to Thailand in the late seventies and in more recent years has travelled extensively throughout the country with backpack and notebook, observing the interaction of Thais and foreign visitors.
“Thai Girl is a story which has great passion for Thailand and its idiosyncrasies.”
–Metro Magazine
“Credited with opening a window on Thai culture and interactions between Thais and farang... Thai Girl has become one of the biggest-selling English language novels ever published in Thailand.”
–Untamed Travel
“Thai Girl is in essence a travel novel that explores Thailand's complex society through the eyes of young backpackers as they discover the delights of Bangkok, Koh Samet and Koh Chang, and it attempts to explain the cultural gap between East and West through the experiences of a young foreigner and his Thai girlfriend. The author's powers of observation are remarkable. He writes so well and informatively about Thailand, its culture and the myriad aspects of society here, and for that reason alone, Thai Girl is well worth reading.”
–The Big Chilli
“When Fon, the Thai girl' appears, she takes over the novel and makes it fly. Pretty, sassy, coquettish, ambitious and iron-willed, Fon fairly leaps off the page, a living breathing character. Always there is the delightful Fon, lighting up Ben's life and the novel itself. The highlight of the book is Ben's trip with Fon to her ancestral village. The physical setting and the rhythms of life here are beautifully observed.”
–James Eckardt, The Nation
“Thai Girl opens doors on a world of cross-cultural complexity where misunderstandings abound. Its author is one of few writers who understand that in the Land of Smiles, nothing and no one is what they seem. I couldn't put the book down.”
–Stephen Leathear, author of Private Dancer
“Hicks has done very well in his pen sketch of the Thai psyche of the Isaan girl, who can be open and closed, off-hand and standoffish all at the same time.”
–Lang Reid, Pattaya Mail
“Thai Girl explores Thailand, its culture and its people through the eyes of a western visitor, Ben, as he observes the Bangkok scene and confronts the issues affecting a nation in flux, rapidly industrializing and as it does so, leaving many of its traditional values behind. It also explores the nature of today's young Thai women, many with their roots in rural poverty but with their eyes on the glitter of a sparkling consumer society. Pick up a copy and take a journey of your own through the heartlands of Thailand.”
–FCCT Bulletin (The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand)
