THE JUDGMENT
Chart Korbjitti

 This is the story of a young man who took as his wife a widow who was slightly deranged...

Fak is the humble janitor of a provincial temple school. A former novice with the prospect of an outstanding career as a monk, he defrocks to help his ageing, struggling father. While Fak is in the army, his father takes a wife. When the old man dies, Fak shares his hut with the widow. As he repels her advances and protects her from a hostile community, he falls prey to prejudice and misunderstandings from his neighbours, and there is nothing he can do to overturn the people's judgment. He finds solace in alcohol, which 'liberates' him by providing oblivion...

This epoch-making novel, set in the rural central Thailand of the 1980s, is a scathing satire and chilling endictment of modern society, which makes heroes of 'fuckin' cheats' and condemns upright citizens out of sheer hypocrisy. It earned its author his first SEA Write Award in 1982. Twelve years later, his second award, for Time, confirmed Chart Korbjitti as the most outstanding novelist of his generation.

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