ANDREW HICKS

When travellers Ben and Emma split up in Thailand, Ben falls for a local masseuse and experiences the darker side of tourism, where farmers daughters sell their bodies in Bangkok bars. Thai Girl is a thought-provoking adventure novel that explores the problems of prostitution and cross-cultural relationships, and reaches its climax in the sultry heat of Thailands exotic traveller beaches.

This is about how Andrew Hicks met Cat, a Thai girl half his age and how they set up home together in her village out in the rice fields of North Eastern Thailand. Hell tell you of toads in the toilet, of ants eggs for breakfast, how they took up frog farming and how he got married without really meaning to. Its also a book about the countryside, of the old Thailand where the rhythm of the seasons and belief in the spirits and Buddhism remain strong. Though how could Andrew, a greying English lawyer, ever fit into the lives of a Thai rice farming family? Can Cat and Andrew with their many differences really be compatible?