Set in northern Thailand during the mid-1970s, the stories in this collection capture a period of dramatic social and economic change. Amidst a setting of marketplaces and paddyfields, lemon trees and leaf-roofed houses, these vignettes offer revealing insights into the daily lives of ordinary villagers and hillspeople struggling to survive.

 Samruam Singh (1949-1996) was a teacher, writer, and activist. He published most of the stories in this collection in the progressive weekly Jaturat, during the interlude between the ousting of the nation’s military government in 1973 and the return of military rule in 1976.

Katherine A. Bowie, professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the author of Rituals of National Loyalty: An Anthropology of the State and the Village Scout Movement in Thailand.