Books: Karma and drama spring to life in Thailand's central south

BANGKOK -- There is a growing library of English-language fiction in Thailand, but the novels are overwhelmingly located in Bangkok, and many focus on contemporary crime or fall into the "girlie-bar fiction" category. Other offerings include some science fiction such as "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi, or historical fiction focusing on the 15th-century to 18th-century Ayutthaya kingdom.

The second-most popular setting is northern Thailand, usually inspired by the charmingly laid-back culture associated with the Lanna kingdom of the 14th century to the 19th century or the underbelly society of drug trafficking, prostitution and exploited hill tribes. Southern Thailand has drawn the attention of some modern fiction writers ("The Beach," by Alex Garland, for example). But few fiction writers -- Thai or foreign -- have focused on the South in historical fiction.