SANEH SANGSUK

The village of Praeknamdang, nestled in the Thai jungle, has fallen under the spell of a corrupt religious leader. Only one family dares to resist his growing power: a couple and their talented ten-year-old son. But one day, while playing in the fields, the boy is attacked by a cobra. Locked in a life and death struggle with the snake, the border between the human and the animal disintegrates. Did the boy simply stray too near to a burrow, or is this a punishment for his familys independent spirit? A gripping existential parable, Venom introduces English language readers to the world of Saneh Sangsuk. Lush, raw and lyrical, this is storytelling at its finest.

Luang Paw Tien, the abbot of Praeknamdang Temple, is ninety-three years old and a treasure trove of stories. Most nights he entertains the children of his village with tales from his long and extraordinary life: of his childhood in a previous century, of his fifteen year pilgrimage to India and back, and of the plenitude and majesty of the jungle, in a time when it was rich with elephants, peacocks and turtles. But what the children want to hear most of all are tales of the tiger, a creature which has marked the abbots life more deeply and terribly than any other. From the mind of Saneh Sangsuk, one of the most respected and beloved of Thai authors, The Understory is a novel about storytelling, a changing world and the fearsome power of nature.

El relato breve de Sangsuk trasciende lo meramente narrativo para convertirse en una fábula de resonancias morales. La historia nos habla de la vida de un niño tullido que habita en una aldea de campesinos y que es objeto del odio del adivino del pueblo. Un dia, el pequeño tendra que enfrentarse por si solo contra una cobra...

Un auténtico descubrimiento. Una novela-monstruo, furiosa, fulgurante y venenosa, de un extraño lirismo, que pulveriza los clichés occidentales sobre Bangkok.Recluido en una cabaña en medio de ningún sitio, un hombre decide confesar. Acuciado por la urgencia, como si la muerte estuviera cercana, empieza a hablar. Pero lo que al principio parece una simple declaracion amorosa, va transformandose a lo largo de las paginas en un terrible retorno al pasado.La sombra blanca es una novela autobiografica en la que Saneh Sangsuk emprende su particular descenso a los infiernos. Con un sombrio lirismo y un amor desesperado, emprende una busqueda salvaje de una inocencia imposible. Por su erotismo y transgresion, la escritura consigue la redencion del narrador, convertido en eremita en un pueblo del norte de Tailandia... Esta loca danza de amor y muerte da al traste con los topicos de un pais, Tailandia, que no es mas que un refugio hedonista de nuestra era postmoderna.