And Mother told me that she loved me.
Before she died, she told only me that she loved me.
It seemed she gave me her blessings too. Though I couldn’t hear her clearly, I put the palms of my hands together and received her blessings.
I realized then that I was not the loser but the winner.
National Book Prize runner-up, Arrival of Dawn is the story of one daughter’s self-sacrifice. Feeling indebted to her mother, the obedient narrator spends two decades of her life running the family’s pawnshop and caring for her siblings. Having given up suitors and a career, and now in her middle age, it may be time she puts herself first. A sobering look at a fast-changing, yet tradition-bound, Thailand.
“Highly enlightening … A compulsory read for anyone seeking closer familiarity with the Thai people’s everyday way of life.”
— Ines Ehrlich, writer, editor
RUNNER-UP, NATIONAL BOOK PRIZE
