As sharp and delicious as a Thai red curry, the beautifully crafted interlinking narratives 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 drastic steps will Mother Suree take to curb her husband’s infidelities on the eve of the Loy Krathong festival? And is the sacred banyan tree dying because the men are gambling about its size, or because the women are lighting too many oil lamps under its ancient boughs? Achieving both charm and authenticity, 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 dramas, as to be utterly irresistible.
WINNER IN THE FIRST BOOK CATEGORY AT THE SCOTTISH MORTGAGE INVESTMENT TRUST BOOK AWARDS.
'Moonshine in the Morning paints an evocative portrait of life in north-west Thailand, complete with lush jungle scenery, exotic flora and aromatic foods.'
Financial Times
'This beautifully crafted first novel is a cry of anger and pity as well as of celebration...McNicoll weaves her sad, savage and comic stories into a tapestry which records the richness of a people and their landscape. This is at once a book of incisive satire and sympathetic poetry, with its encompassing symbol of the dying Holy Banyan Tree at the heart of the community.'
Professor Douglas Gifford, Emeritus Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow, at The Saltire Society Literary Awards
'Reading a book is a kind of journey: a cut-price holiday in credit-crunch times, a break from the grey familiarity of everyday life. I hope that when readers pick up my novel they will experience that sense of escape through the book's unfamiliar setting.'
Andrea McNicoll
Interview with Andrea McNicoll
Andrea will also be attending the
Borders Book Fair on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th June.
Read an excerpt from
Moonshine in the Morning
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