The King of Bangkok

"The artwork is at least as important as text. Sara Fabbri’s colored line drawings give the tale an urgency that words themselves cannot convey."

Peter Gordon, Asian Review of Books

"Shades of hope and humor glimmer amid the forces of inequity and impunity depicted in this memorable book that homes in on the rich lives of ordinary people, those who the country's rulers are meant to serve."

David Hopkins, Nikkei Asia

"This book is a triumph."

Chris Baker, Bangkok Post

“Well informed and captivating. Much more than a didactic good-versus-evil tale, The King of Bangkok does justice to the complex people who animate a country that many of us would do well to know better.” Rosalie Metro, University of Missouri-Columbia, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Thailand’s rural and migrant workers have been disenfranchised, left in the margins of state-sanctioned history and development. This acute and enlightening graphic novel provides a voice to the silenced and substance to their invisibilized, broken bodies."

Nicolas Verstappen, author of The Art of Thai Comics

"The King of Bangkok sheds light on the life of the Thai urban poor, migrants from rural areas who seek better opportunities in Thailand’s capital, whose lives were disrupted by political turmoil when they arose to demand democracy. They have been awakened as never before."

Thongchai Winichakul, author of Moments of Silence

"An expansive use of the graphic novel format to tell an important story about Thailand's rural and migrant workers. The innovative combination of narrative and images offers an exciting way to make ethnographic and historical research come alive. Inventive and illuminating."

Margaret Crawford, coauthor of Everyday Urbanism

"In this witty but tragic graphic novel, we see carefully orchestrated smiles mask the crushing burdens of deep and increasing economic and political inequality. We viscerally experience the injustices faced by Thailand’s rural poor as they seek paths out of penury in the unforgiving capital."

Michael Herzfeld, author of Siege of the Spirits

"An unresolved chapter in Thailand’s troubled history becomes vividly accessible through the perspective of one country-born newcomer to Bangkok. Insightfully written and inventively illustrated, The King of Bangkok makes hard truths and political questions individual and empathetic."

Paul Gravett, author of Comics Art and Mangasia