Why read Welcome Me to the Kingdom?

Book cover of Welcome Me to the Kingdom

Book description

Bangkok, 1980. As the decades pass, figures fall in and out of the relentless city: Pea and Nam, who arrive in search of a better life; a Thai Elvis impersonator and his only daughter, Pinky; Benz, Tintin and Big, a brotherhood of orphaned strayboys; Rick, the white American patriarch who…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Welcome Me to the Kingdom as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Tom Vater

Author

This collection of short stories, set between 1980 and 2016, portrays the lives of a handful of recurring characters, and while anyone with a vague knowledge of Thailand will recognize the cultural tropes typically associated with the country, the world offered by Nardone, who is Thai American, is one that is largely hidden from outsiders.
Western readers are likely to be surprised by the chasm between the well-established Thai stereotypes of beach holidays, spicy food and raucous nightlife and the tough realities of daily life in the country. As the buildings in old cowboy movies are merely assemblies of two-dimensional…

From Tom's 3 favorite reads in 2025.