Moonshine in the Morning

As sharp and delicious as a Thai red curry, the beautifully-crafted interlinking tales of "Moonshine in the Morning" present an unforgettable cast of strong-minded women and their wayward husbands clinging to village life in Thailand before the relentless advance of modernity. How can Mother Nong and Mother Pensri save their menfolk from terrifying visions of 'widow ghosts', when Uncle Lai's moonshine stall does such brisk business? What possessed Mother Suree to cut off her husband's proudest appendage and attach it to a high-flying balloon during the festival of Loy Krathong? And is the sacred banyan tree dying because the men are taking bets on its size, or because the women are lighting too many oil lamps under its ancient boughs? Achieving both charm and authenticity, debut novelist Andrea McNicoll subtly builds up her characters and themes to create a world so distant in its geography, and yet so familiar in its intimate human drama, as to be utterly irresistible.