The Sad Part Was [Paperback]

'Evocative, erudite, and often very funny stories of Bangkok life.'— The Guardian

A 'Book to Look Out For' byThe GuardianandBuzzFeed,The Sad Part Wasoffers an oblique reflection of contemporary Bangkok life.

In these witty, postmodern stories, Yoon riffs on pop culture, experiments with punctuation, flirts with sci-fi and, in a metafictional twist, mocks his own position as omnipotent author. Highly literary, his narratives explore the bewildering disjunct and oft-hilarious contradictions of a modernity that is at odds with many traditional Thai ideas on relationships, family, school and work.

GBThe author of multiple story collections, novels and screenplays,Prabda Yoonis also a translator (of classics by Salinger and Nabokov), independent publisher (of books both originally written in and translated into Thai), graphic designer, and filmmaker. Having lived in the USA from the ages of 14 to 26, he speaks fluent English and is at home moving between the cultures. 

Mui Poopoksakulis a lawyer-turned-translator. She grew up in Bangkok and Boston, and practiced law in New York City before returning to the literary field. She is the translator of Prabda Yoon’s The Sad Part Was (2017) and Moving Parts (2018), both winners of a PEN Translates award, and of Duanwad Pimwana’s Arid Dreams (2020) and Bright (2019).

'Evocative, erudite, and often very funny stories of Bangkok life.'—The Guardian

‘This trenchant observation of lives in a vibrant, alluring setting, elegantly rendered in English for the first time, definitely raises the bar for Thai literary works to be translated in the future.’—World Literature Today

'The stories that form Prabda Yoon’s mind-bending and strangely melancholic universe arlƒB