The author of multiple story collections, novels and screenplays, Prabda Yoon is 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 Poopoksakul is 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 are unfailingly provocative... Playful, coolly surrealist... this landmark collection... is not only the first of Yoon's work to be translated into English, but a rare international publication of Thai fiction... Mui Poopoksakul's translation renders the stories fluent and accessible, ironing out the linguistic kinks and allowing Yoon's portraits of Bangkok lives to take centre stage.' -- Financial Times

'Formally inventive, always surprising and often poignant, with the publication of this fluid and assured translation of The Sad Part Was, Prabda Yoon can take his place alongside the liks of Ben Lerner and Alejandro Zambra as a writer committed to demonstrating that there's life in the old fiction-dog yet.' -- Adam Biles, author of Feeding Time

'An entrancing and distinctive collection. Yoon's limpid prose faces up to large, transcendental questions, all the while flickering with beautiful other-worldly images and flashes of deadpan humour.' -- Mahesh Rao, author of One Point Two Billion

'Prabda Yoon is one of Thailand's finest writers. These witty, adventurous, and wholly brilliant short stories were a necessary shot across the bow when they first appeared in Thai, a deceptively revolutionary collection that helped to transform the country's literary landscape. Long deemed untranslatable, given their interests in linguistic wordplay, their appearance in English--in this supple, agile translation by Mui Poopoksakul--is a cause for celebration.' -- Rattawut Lapcharoensap

Publisher: Tilted Axis Press

Pub date: 2025-08-12

Length: 192 pages