The King of Bangkok

This beautifully illustrated graphic novel tells the history of contemporary Thailand through the life of a blind man who walks on the streets of the capital for the last time.

Publisher Marketing: "The artwork is at least as important as text. Sara Fabbri's colored line drawings give the tale an urgency that words themselves cannot convey." Review Quotes : "Shades of hope and humor glimmer amid the forces of inequity and impunity depicted in this memorable book that homes in on the rich lives of ordinary people, those who the country's rulers are meant to serve." Review Quotes : "Well informed and captivating. Much more than a didactic good-versus-evil tale, The King of Bangkok does justice to the complex people who animate a country that many of us would do well to know better." Commendation Quotes : "Thailand's rural and migrant workers have been disenfranchised, left in the margins of state-sanctioned history and development. Here, in the interstitial space between these rich panels, from the gutters to the page, the acute and enlightening graphic novel The King of Bangkok admirably provides not only a voice to the silenced but also substance and texture to their invisibilized, broken bodies." - Nicolas Verstappen, lecturer and comics scholar, Chulalongkorn University and author of The Art of Thai Comics: A Century of Strips and Stripes Table of Contents : Foreword by Nick Sousanis Preface Prelude Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Acknowledgments Appendix I: Timeline of Events Appendix II: Interview with the Authors Appendix III: Reading Guide Appendix IV: Further Readings Biographical Note : Claudio Sopranzetti is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Central European University. He is the author of Owners of the Map , winner of the 2019 Margaret Mead Award. Sara Fabbri is an illustrator and editorial designer, currently working as Art Director for Linus , an Italian comics magazine. Chiara Natalucci is an interpreter and translator of Russian and English, currently teaching English at a secondary school in Italy. Brief Description : "Based on a decade of interviews and archival research, the English translation of this bestselling graphic novel tells the story of Nok, an old blind man who sells lottery tickets in Bangkok, as he decides to leave the urban capital and return to his native village. ... With each ticket he sells, he encounters something that brings him back to a period of his life, from his arrival in Bangkok all the way to the Red Shirt protests of 2010. Through an alternation of reflections on contemporary Bangkok and flashbacks to his past, we reconstruct Nok's story, the love story with his wife Gai, and the ups and downs of their migrant lives, as well as those of an entire country around them"-- Review Quotes : "This book is a triumph." Publisher Marketing : The English translation of this bestselling graphic novel tells the story of Nok, an old blind man who sells lottery tickets in Bangkok, as he decides to leave the city and return to his native village. Through reflections on contemporary Bangkok and flashbacks to his past, Nok reconstructs a journey through the slums of migrant workers, the rice fields of Isaan, the tourist villages of Ko Pha Ngan, and the Red Shirt protests of 2010. Based on a decade of anthropological research, The King of Bangkok is a story of migration to the city, distant families in the countryside, economic development eroding the land, and violent political protest. Ultimately, it is a story about contemporary Thailand and how the waves of history lift, engulf, and crash against ordinary people. Contributor Bio: Sopranzetti, Claudio Claudio Sopranzetti is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Central European University. He is the author of Owners of the Map , winner of the 2019 Margaret Mead Award. Contributor Bio: Fabbri, Sara Sara Fabbri is an illustrator and editorial designer, currently working as Art Director for Linus , an Italian comics magazine. Contributor Bio: Natalucci, Chiara Chiara Natalucci is an interpreter and translator of Russian and English, currently teaching English at a secondary school in Italy.

Format: Paperback | Pages: 296 | Publication Date: 2021-11-11