Sign-In
Cart
The Battle of Life
Hardcover
ISBN13: 9786162152252
Publisher: Silkworm Books
Published: Dec 1 2026
Pages: 136
Language: English
Not merely a landmark of modern Thai fiction, this work is written at the fault line of history. Published in June 1932--the very month that ended absolute monarchy in Siam--the novel captures the moral anxieties, social inequalities, and intellectual ferment of a nation on the brink of transformation, offering rare insight into the era's emotional and ethical vocabulary.
Structured as an intimate epistolary exchange between two young idealists--Raphin, an aspiring writer and minor civil servant, and Phloen, a once-privileged young woman facing sudden hardship--the novel moves beyond romance into social critique. Readers encounter corruption in the bureaucracy, hollow religiosity, class prejudice, censorship, medical injustice, and the fragility of idealism in a rapidly modernizing society.
Often described as the first Thai humanitarian novel, The Battle of Life marks a turning point in literary consciousness and functions simultaneously as narrative art and historical witness. Its controversial ending shocked contemporary readers but stands as a deliberate moral challenge: an insistence that literature must confront society, not comfort it.
Also in
General Fiction
Elizabeth Spencer: Novels & Stories (Loa #344): The Voice at the Back Door / The Light in the Piazza / Knights and Dragons / Stories
Spencer, Elizabeth
Hardcover
Anniversaries, Volume 2: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl, April 1968-August 1968
Johnson, Uwe
Paperback
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose, and Diary Excerpts
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback
Philip Roth: Novels 1967-1972 (Loa #158): When She Was Good / Portnoy's Complaint / Our Gang / The Breast
Roth, Philip
Hardcover
Selected Writings: Robert Musil: Young Torless, Three Women, the Perfecting of a Love, and Other Writings
Musil, Robert
Agee, Joel
Paperback