Time - A Thai novel

Take half a dozen old women, a monk, sundry vendors,  a few kids, a movie director, a madman and a half-wit;  add a soda bottle and the silver shadow of lotuses;  shake well; and presto: rich and taut and sweet and tart, Time, crowned by the 1994 SEA Write Award, is a masterly cocktail of laughs and tears.  A must-read for all over forty - and for all those of all ages who want to understand  the changing values of Thai society  and the unchanging urges and mores of man.