“An important, ambitious, and accomplished novel.”

— Mohsin Hamid, author of Exit West, on Bangkok Wakes to Rain

U.S. cover of the novel Bangkok Wakes to Rain, featuring vertical green stripes veiling the image of a Thai green parrot
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New York Times Notable Book of the Year
Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction
Kirkus Reviews Best Books

Lurching through decades, from Bangkok’s rich past to its precarious future, the human tales in this novel seep into one another, held together by delicate threads. Read more…


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US: Penguin Random House — Riverhead Books
Apple Book / Barnes & Noble / Books-A-Million / Bookshop / Indiebound / Powell’s / PRH


UK: Hodder & Stoughton — Sceptre
 Hodder / Waterstones / WH Smiths


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  • “…a bold and tender novel…Sudbanthad arrives to us already a masterful innovator of the form—a startlingly original debut.”

    —Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh
    and The Queen of the Night

  • “…Sudbanthad so compellingly captures not only the long arcs of these lives—but also the smallest moments, and how those moments linger in memory, how they haunt.”

    —Karen Thompson Walker, author of
    The Dreamers and The Age of Miracles

  • “Gorgeously polyphonic and saturated in the senses, Bangkok Wakes to Rain brims with a wistful and gripping energy. Sudbanthad carries us through time and space with a magician’s hand, with a visionary’s eye…”

    —Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus

  • “Sudbanthad’s beautiful, ambitious first novel moves with an elegant restlessness that seems to match the city’s own.”

    —Rajesh Parameswaran, author of I Am an Executioner

Events

June 25, 2020
Online live event
The Alignist
w/ musician Kengchakaj and chef Kasem Saengsawang
Time: 730pm

July 31, 2020
Brooklyn, NY ; online event
826NYC 
Time: 3:30pm

October 4, 2020
Brooklyn Book Festival
“Poetry of Fiction” w/ Carolyn Forche, Yusef Komunyakaa, Kate Zambreno
Time: TBD

March 17, 2021
Virtual Author Series
w/ NYPL and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop
Time: More info soon

See all events

“This teeming debut novel…recreates the experience of living in Thailand’s aqueous climate so viscerally that you can feel the water rising around your ankles.”
—The Washington Post

“Fluid in its structure and aqueous in its themes, the novel vividly evokes the teeming, sweltering city…”
—The New Yorker

“Ambitious and sweeping, yet at once intimately crafted and shot through with fine detail, Bangkok Wakes to Rain is a sumptuous accomplishment.”
—Esquire

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© Pitchaya Sudbanthad 2020