''Jasmine Nights'' is a 1994 novel by the Thai author

S.P. Somtow S. P. Somtow (a rearrangement of his real name Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul; th, สมเถา สุจริตกุล; ; born 30 December 1952) is a Thai-American musical composer. He is also a science fiction, fantasy, and horror author ...

, first published by

Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''James'' the English form – which was ...

in the United Kingdom in book form after first being serialized in weekly installments in the

Bangkok Post The ''Bangkok Post'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok, Thailand. It is published in broadsheet and digital formats. The first issue was sold on 1 August 1946. It had four pages and cost one baht, a considerable amount ...

. The U.S. edition, from St. Martin's Press, followed in 1995. It is a semi-autobiographical novel with touches of magic realism which relates a year in the life of a young Thai boy living with eccentric elderly relatives in a gilded estate hidden in an apparently ordinary

soi ''Soi'' ( th, ซอย ) is the term used in Thailand for a side-street branching off a major street (''thanon'', th, ถนน). An alley is called a ''trok'' ( th, ตรอก). Overview Sois are usually numbered, and are referred to by th ...

in 1960s

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

Plot summary

A twelve-year-old boy, known as Little Frog to his family and Justin to his few friends, is left in the care of three strange aristocratic aunts and a rather frightening uncle until he is old enough to attend

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

school in England. In order to prepare himself for his intended future, he insists on speaking only English and will eat only bacon and eggs for breakfast, though he is prepared to accept Thai dishes at other meals. In this peculiar situation the boy finds himself between three worlds, the Thai world of his family and his regal ancestors and their apparently pointless rituals, the western world of logic and common sense which he finds more compatible with his temperament and the imaginary world of his sheltered childhood. Imagining himself to be a great scholar and philosopher, Justin enlists the aid of an African American boy and the family gardener's son and sets out to convert his school classmates from their ingrained bigotry and racism.

Reviews

* * Review by

Jo Walton Jo Walton (born 1964) is a Welsh and Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She is best known for the fantasy novel ''Among Others'', which won the Hugo Award, Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012, and ''Tooth and Claw (novel), Tooth ...

References

1994 fantasy novels Magic realism novels Thai novels Novels set in Thailand Bildungsromans Fiction by S. P. Somtow {{1990s-bildungsroman-stub