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A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS CHOICE A tense, stunningly well-observed novel of a young American on the run, from Lawrence Osborne, an heir to Graham Greene (The New York Times Book Review) Bangkok is the star of this accomplished novel. Its denizens are aliens to themselves, glittering on the horizon of their own lives, movingrestless and rootless and afraidthough a cityscape that has more stories than they know.Hilary Mantel, Booker Prizewinning author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies Escaping New York for the anonymity of Bangkok, Sarah Mullins arrives in Thailand on the lam with nothing more than a suitcase of purloined money. Her plan is to lie low and map out her next move in a high-end apartment complex called the Kingdom, whose glass-fronted faade boasts views of the bustling city and glimpses into the vast honeycomb of lives within. It is not long before she meets the alluring Mali doing laps in the apartment pool, a fellow tenant determined to bring the quiet American out of her shell. An invitation to Malis weekly poker nights follows, andfueled by shots of yadong, good food, and gossipSarah soon falls in with the Kingdoms glamorous circle of ex-pat women. But as political chaos erupts on the streets below and attempted uprisings wrack the city, tensions tighten within the gilded compound. When the violence outside begins to invade the Kingdom in a series of strange disappearances, the residents are thrown into suspicion: both of the world beyond their windows and of one another. And under the constant surveillance of the buildings watchful inhabitants, Sarahs safe haven begins to feel like a snare. From a master of atmosphere and mood, The Glass Kingdom is a brilliantly unsettling story of civil and psychological unrest, and an enthralling study of karma and human greed.
I love a good expat novel! Sarah, an American on the run, makes friends with some glamorous women with suspicious motives in a Bangkok housing complex.
The Glass Kingdom: A Novel | 
