BANGKOK -- For years, the Thailand sections of Bangkok's English-language bookstores have been dominated by a colorful yet shallow mixture of popular and academic history, travel guides, coffee-table cookbooks and expatriate-penned thrillers that amplify the country's less-savory aspects. What they have sorely lacked, in other words, is Thai voices.
Slowly, however, that is changing: From an earthy bildungsroman to an unremittingly lyrical love story, contemporary Thai literature in translation is making its presence felt as never before.
