Behind the Painting

Nopporn, a Thai student studying in Japan, is tasked with hosting a distinguished old family friend and his new wife, the beautiful Lady Kirati. Despite their age difference, and despite the ties of fidelity and propriety that bind them, Nopporn and Kirati are inexorably drawn to each other. First published in 1937, this romantic novel lays bare the strictures, contradictions and possibilities of post-war Thai society, and evokes the poignancy of surviving a doomed love.