Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82720 in Books
• Published on: 1999
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From the Author
Thailand: an exotic and dangerous journey
Like many people who have lived in Thailand, I still have many wonderful memories of the Land of Smiles. But it is also true that a farang (foreigner) is not always aware of what is really going on behind the scenes. The smiles, while genuine, mislead us into thinking that what is presented on the surface is the only reality. In Kingdom of Make-Believe, a New York publisher who once served in Thailand during the Vietnam War receives a plea for help from his late brother's Thai widow. As he was also in love with the woman himself before she chose to marry his brother, his emotions while returning to Thailand for the first time in over 20 years run high. But he gradually discovers that the nostalgic portrait he carried of Thailand Past bears little resemblance to reality, and he begins to uncover deception, danger and death. He also learns of the guilt of those he had befriended and even loved. Scenes in the novel range from Manhattan's Greenwich Village to a typhoon-ravaged Hong Kong to Thailand's notorious nightlife and warlord betrayals inside the Golden Triangle. I hope readers find this to be a gripping mystery and exotic thriller, but, at its heart, it is the story of a man coming to terms with reality and with himself. I first arrived in Thailand as a Chinese linguist with the Army Security Agency during the Vietnam War. I returned to the United States and received my Masters Degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii. I later returned to Asia and lived for 17 years in Hong Kong and Bangkok writing, editing and publishing. I'm pleased to say that my writing and photography on Thailand have won several awards including the PATA Grand Prize for Excellence. I'm always pleased to hear comments about the novel and hope readers might like my next novel set in Thailand, Memoirs of a Bangkok Warrior. -