BOOK LAUNCHES
พูดคุยพบปะนักเขียน
SATURDAY 1st
BOOK LAUNCHES MUSEUM SIAM MAIN BUILDING
13:30 - 14:30
DANCE ME TO THE END OF TIME
Christopher G. Moore
Christopher G. Moore, who has lived in Thailand since 1988, is the author of an astonishing 17 books recounting the adventures of private eye Vincent Calvino, as well as being the author of various anthologies and non-fiction works. As well as introducing his last Calvino novel, Christopher will discuss his life as a writer of both fiction and non fiction, as well as his fears for the future of the planet.
A noir investigation set in Bangkok's climate-changed future.
It is the era of the Great Upheaval and the Resistance, a time when people split their lives between virtual reality and the real world of sunken streets and khlongs swallowed by rising seas, in a land where resources are stretched and the poor are thirsty.
In the final book of the Vincent Calvino crime series, Calvino searches for a missing teenage “water boy,” and ends up caught between a Chinese-controlled AI named Henrietta, hordes of desperate climate migrants, fanatic religious guilds and a new breed of super smart scientists, all determined to stay alive.
14:45 - 15:30
GUIDE TO COMMON WILDLIFE IN BANGKOK (THAI)
Narisa Chakrabongse
ผู้ก่อตั้งมูลนิธิโลกสีเขียว
Amidst Bangkok’s traffic congestion and soaring skyscrapers, few might imagine that the city is home to many species of mammals, reptiles, insects and birds. Based on the annual Bangkok Wild Watch surveys carried out since 2012, the Green World Foundation has produced an attractive and city field guide which will help bring Bankokians closer to nature and thereby fight to preserve it.
16:00 - 16:45
VANISHING BANGKOK
Ben Davies
This stunning black and white photographic book takes us on a journey through the forgotten back streets and hidden neighbor hoods of Bangkok to reveal the fragile beauty and faded charms of the city that may soon be lost forever. From the splendid old Customs House perched on the banks of the Chao Phraya River to the vibrant communities of Chinatown and sleepy canals lost in time, Vanishing Bangkok evokes a city that despite successive waves of modernisation still boasts an extraordinarily rich and diverse cultural heritage.
In his slide presentation, long-term Bangkok resident, Ben Davies, will reveal why he decided to capture the city’s delights using a large format Linhof film camera and the problems and surprises he encountered along the way. Davies has photographed and written a number of books on vanishing cultures in Asia including Laos: A Journey Beyond the Mekong and Living with Spirits: A Journey into the Heart of Thailand. His work has appeared in a wide range of distinguished publications and media including National Geographic, the London Daily Telegraph, the Irish Times, Vogue and Time Magazine. He is a contributing photographer for Getty Images.
17:15 - 18:00
BANGKOK IN TIMES OF LOVE AND WAR
Claire Keefe-Fox
In Bangkok, Kate Fallon, an American nurse, working in Thailand to escape her past of poverty and a broken heart, and Lawrence Gallet, a wealthy English journalist, are trapped in the chaos of conflict, believing their love can overcome their differences before being torn apart.
Lawrence flees to China to escape the advancing Japanese army, while the net closes slowly around Kate, who has remained behind, increasingly threatened and forced to hide her identity.
A sweeping saga moving from a Thailand uneasily poised between Japan and the West to the ravaged battlegrounds of Burma and India, from the charity ward of a Bangkok hospital to bombed airfields, from the Thai domestic resistance movement to the deadly jungles of the Arakan, "Bangkok in Times of Love and War" is a story of life and death, passion and loyalty and loss, and of a man and a woman caught up in the upheaval of history.
18:30 - 19:15
VERY BANGKOK – IN THE CITY OF THE SENSES
Philip Cornwel-Smith
Bangkok arrests the visitor with a bewildering juxtaposition of old and new, hi-tech and impromptu, sacred and profane. While modernizing under myriad outside influences, the Thai capital draws equal vigour from its historic communities, cultural diversity and contemporary urban tribes.
Drawing on his 25 years’ experience of the city, Philip Cornwel-Smith, author of the acclaimed Very Thai, introduces us to myriad, kaleidescopic views of the city he loves and knows so well.
In conversation with Marc Pachter, mentor and a former director at the Smithsonian, Philip discusses the background to the book, the problems of encapsulating Bangkok in one volume and his hopes for the city in the future.
SUNDAY 2nd
BOOK LAUNCHES MUSEUM SIAM MAIN BUILDING
13:30 - 14:15
RADICAL THOUGHT, THAI MIND: A HISTORY OF REVOLUTIONARY IDEOLOGY IN A TRADITIONAL SOCIETY
Paul Wedel
Author and former Bangkok Bureau Chief for United Press
Yuangrat Wedel
Author and former political science professor at Thammasat and Ramkhamhaeng Universities
Radical Thought, Thai Mind: A History of Revolutionary Ideology in a Traditional Society describes and analyzes Thai radical political and social thought that has motivated more than a century of conflict – conflict that continues today. The book covers nearly 200 years of Thai political history. More recent interviews analyze the splits in the radical movement that fueled the Yellow vs Red political clashes that began in 2004.
16:00 - 16:45
LAST TO THE FRONT - A NOVEL
Gee Svasti In Conversation with Claire Keefe-Fox
France 1918: With the war entering its last, critical chapter, a company of Thai drivers is late to the scene.
Commanded by the prudish Captain Sumet and his hard-pressed deputy, Chai, their missions see them thrown into the chaos of the Meuse Argonne front, delivering shells to the artillery batteries, Grand Cru vintages to the high-command, medicine to beleaguered platoons, before their trucks are stolen by an American tank Corps.
Last to the Front is about the clash of empires, social and historical change. But it is also a personal story about the lives of young soldiers, thousands of miles from home, thrown into the world’s most brutal catastrophe, battling language, prejudice and intolerance, as much as shells, bayonets and machine guns.
Chai, wounded in Germany, returns home from Europe more sanguine and wise, but is also forced to relinquish deep friendships and love.
Half-Thai, Half-English, Gee Svasti will be in conversation with Claire Keefe-Fox to discuss what drew him to the subject of his novel and the problems of historical research and accuracy versus the need for a good story.
16:00 - 16:45
ASYMMETRICAL NEIGHBORS: BORDERLAND STATE BUILDING BETWEEN CHINA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA (CANCELLED)
Enze Han
Author and Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong
Is the process of state building a unilateral, national venture, or is it something more collaborative, taking place in the interstices between adjoining countries? To answer this question, Asymmetrical Neighbors takes a comparative look at the state building process along China, Myanmar, and Thailand's common borderland area. It shows that the variations in state building among these neighboring countries are the result of an interactive process that occurs across national boundaries. It argues that the success or failure of one country's state building is a process that extends beyond domestic factors such as war preparation, political institutions, and geographic and demographic variables. Rather, it shows that we should conceptualize state building as an interactive process heavily influenced by a "neighborhood effect." Furthermore, the book moves beyond the academic boundaries that divide arbitrarily China studies and Southeast Asian studies by providing an analysis that ties the state and nation building processes in China with those of Southeast Asia.
17:15 - 18:00
LUANG PRABANG LOVE STORY
Mani-Samouth
Set in Luang Prabang of the 1930s, this delightful and heart-warming memoir tells the story of Kham-Phiou, an aristocratic but non-royal girl, and her courtship by Prince Souvannaphouma. Beautiful and modest, Kham-Phiou is at first a reluctant bride, while the older Prince’s family are totally opposed to the union. However, overcoming many obstacles including the opposition of Kham-Phiou’s mother, the couple are at first happy and enjoy their life together, until fate cruelly intervenes.
Spanning more than fifty years, this is a unique yet universal tale of love found, lost and at last regained. Set against against a vivid backdrop of ancient Luang Prabang traditions, author Mani-Samouth brings to life family legends, and the complex history of Laos of that era.
