Monks, murder, money, miracles and mystifications. Snakes galore and sleazy slitherings intertwined with scandal, suicide and rape in the central Thai village of Khoak Phranang - the first of a celebrated quartet of novels [see The Medium, Khoak Phranang and Lord of the Land under the ThaiFiction imprint]. Central to the story are Yeesun, murderer, boxer, snake catcher and a good man - and Abbot Nian (Father Smoothy), who beheads Buddha statues, kills a monk and beds another for the greater glory of his temple. A tale told at breakneck speed with bite and sardonic humour. A daring novel written in 1984 denouncing the betrayal of Buddhism in the age of rampant consumerism

Against a background of frenzied land speculation where all sorts of dirty tricks are par for the course, who of Abbot Nian and Kharm the Medium will emerge as the Lord of the Land? The increasingly heated competition between the main protagonists of Snakes and The Medium offers a disturbing insight into the pains of the Thai countryside in the 1990s. By the winner of the Year 2000 SEA Write Award for his novel on cloning, Immortal.