Tew Bunnag’s tales from Bangkok are set in the hard slums and luxurious mansions of the city and cover the lives of people in diff erent social strata. Told with familiarity and irony these snapshots are a crisp commentary on the fragility of contemporary Thai society. “Everything is crumbling and you do your best to catch the moment of pleasure as it passes.” (from the Epilogue) And this the author has the confi dence to fi nd admirable. These 10 stories are a celebration (often ironic, but always sympathetic) of the fl exible buoyancy of people, something that lets them look at ugly Bangkok and yet live in it. Rather than a diatribe against the city it is an acclamation of resilience.