Blind earthworm in the maze

◆ Warm greetings from the Thai author, first edition limited edition special printed title page◆

This tragic and illusory love story subtly reveals the ill-fated fate of a country.
How can a blind earthworm, wandering around in the maze of reality that even a sighted person cannot see through, find a glimmer of hope for survival?

Won the SEA Write Award for the second time in five years
The first best-selling and award-winning masterpiece by Thailand's first female writer
200,000 copies sold, film and television adaptation confirmed

The day Mom discovers Dad's affair, everything is drowned in tears. An uncle whose upbringing is substituted for vinyl records, a sister addicted to romance novels, a sister who falls for left-wing youth, a fan who falsely claims to be a war correspondent, a boy who grew up teetering on the edge of a traveler's dreams, a cat uncle who has never shed a tear for his human niece... Each touching yet seemingly flawed character tries to find the puzzle piece that will complete their own lives, yet never finds the answer.

This is the story of a love triangle between two sisters and a boy, a journey of growth, search, and heartbreak. Growing up in a family shadowed by their parents' infidelity and divorce, the protagonists are deeply influenced by tradition and religion, yet immersed in Western pop culture. They face the tender yet unattainable dreams of life—whether romantic or political—a constant urge to escape, yet powerless to resist. Each seemingly autonomous decision often falls prey to a generational cycle of fate.

Through a fantastical narrative, "The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth" leads readers to experience the spiritual ups and downs and memory graffiti of Thailand over the past century, and uses gorgeous words to outline the contemporary scenery and light and shadow of Thailand. Whether it is the tropical sea of ​​flowers and leaves, the alleys and paths of Bangkok, or the Thai people's jokes and lies, they are all transformed into a charming yet sigh-worthy maze in Veerapon's pen, waiting for people with good eyesight to open the pages and step into this story about ideals, myths, memories and forgetting.

Around 1980-90, I had already been conceiving the content of this book.
But my real motivation for writing this was to explain to my 17-year-old son,
What exactly happened in Thailand in 2010 (the red and yellow shirts fighting each other).
I wanted to write about it, but I couldn’t write directly about politics.
So, I write about love.
──Virapon Nidhipappa｜Author

Positive reviews at home and abroad

Weng Chih-chi | Assistant Professor of Taiwanese Literature at National Taipei University of Education, Jing Jing | Chinese Writer Xu Chun-yi | Thai Culture Columnist Deng Jiu-yun | Writer Liu Shi-ming | Thai Ice Laoshi Facebook Page. Thai Language Teacher Lu Yu-jia | Writer Luo Yi-wen | Writers – Recommended by the Public

Positive recommendations

Wirapong uses metaphors to condense Thailand's conflicts into a love story... Anyone familiar with Thai history will be impressed by the author's ingenuity. Many of Thailand's major turning points are transformed into almost invisible plot points in the book. At first, the author's irony makes you laugh, but after reading the whole book, you will feel a deep sorrow for the fate of the characters and the entire nation. Wirapong ultimately chooses to insert the needle with the most gentle force. -- Liang Zhenmu | Translator of this book. Moderator of the Thai Translation News fan page

The story of Wirapong using earthworms to eat dirt and then stir-frying it into feces, creating a sticky Thai body and mind! ──Weng Zhiqi｜Assistant Professor of the Department of Taiwanese Culture, National Taipei University of Education

Veerapon's writing style is both brutal and tender. Her characters, each grappling with dysfunctional families, yearn for love but find themselves trapped in toxic relationships. Her pen is dangerous, evoking your most vulnerable experiences of emotional attachment while subtly alluding to the dysfunctional state of contemporary Thai civil society. --Xu Chunyi, Thai Culture Columnist

In our efforts to forget, we end up remembering it deeply. Fragmentation leads us to eternal recurrence. The greatest limitation of being human is our inability to transcend time, so we are drawn to repetition, even when we resist it, it becomes even more intense. These narrative techniques are often called melodramatic because they are effective. But we must understand that romance is an ancient artistic element, a classic technique, and an indispensable structure in mythological stories. —Deng Jiuyun | Writer

This novel shows us how, when people fall in love, they unconsciously fall into myths and fantasies. ——Liu Shiming | Ice Laoshi Thai Fan Page. Thai Teacher

The book's rhetoric is like cherry blossoms flanking the banks, like clouds and mist, drooping over the water, like the pink-petaled rafts bobbing on the river. Yet beneath the murky waters, the reflection of a thorny back flashes, the throbbing of a lizard's feet. The world is sinister, the novel furious, and it will never tamely enter a good night. ... If magical realism is the guns and bullets (realism) hidden within the sedan chair (magic) by the revolutionaries to break through, this book is Thailand's domestically built submarine. Using the style of a romance novel, it completely destroys the patriarchal logic of romance novels. --Lu Yujia | Author

Veerapon's narrative effect is akin to a malarial hallucination, but that's the atmosphere of Bangkok: a soap opera in which someone wakes up and realizes that the previous episodes were just a fever dream. Or is waking up the real dream? ... Veerapon's Bangkok is an immersive experience, exotic without being stereotyped. --The New York Times Book Review

This book takes readers into contemporary Thai life, a country deeply influenced by Western culture, steeped in timeless traditions and Buddhist thought, and shaped by decades of political dissent. Despite a sense of doomed tragedy, this story is a celebration of life that touches all the senses, filled with the scent of food and music, the wonder of nature, and the vibrant energy of life; one story unfolds into another, stretching endlessly. ...A rare glimpse into the fiery heart of contemporary Thai life. - The Washington Independent Book Review

Willapong. Veeraporn Nitiprapha

Born in 1962, she grew up in Bangkok and has lived there for most of her life. After a brief stint studying abroad in Melbourne, Australia, she returned to Bangkok and entered the fashion industry, starting as a fashion magazine editor. She then worked as a copywriter for various advertising agencies, rising through the ranks to become Creative Director. However, she resolutely left the advertising and media industry to pursue jewelry design, establishing her own brand. After running that brand for over a decade, she dedicated herself fully to her creative endeavors.

Her first novel, The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth, published in 2013, received widespread acclaim in Thailand and won the SEA Write Award in 2015, solidifying her position as a prominent contemporary Southeast Asian writer. Renowned for her unique lyrical style, deeply influenced by classical Thai literature, she has continued to write. Following the publication of her second novel, The Buddha's Memory of the West and the Black Rose Cat's Memory, she won the ASEAN Write Award again in 2018, becoming the first female author to win the award twice. This catapulted her to international fame, establishing her as one of Thailand's most celebrated writers. English translations of both of her works have also been released in Europe and the United States. Following the publication of her third novel, Lake of Tears (tentative translation), in 2020, she continues to write.

Married with a son, she is not only a writer but also a showbiz personality. She has appeared in Netflix's self-produced Thai series "69 Double Hook: The Series" and GMMTV's Thai drama "Wandee Goodday".

Liang Zhenmu

A native of Changhua, with a Master's degree in Anthropology from National Taiwan University, he specializes in translating Thai books and film subtitles. His translations include novels like "(P)," "The Simulant," and "2gether: Just Because We Were Made for Each Other." He also runs the blog "Thai Translation News," sharing his experiences in Thailand. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in the Department of Translation at National Taiwan Normal University.

Translator's Preface | Love, Politics, and Scumbags: A Contemporary History of the Thai Soul and Veerapon's Gentle Irony / Liang Zhenmu
1. The Girl in the Fish Tank
2. Valley of the Purple Storks
3. Singing Goldfish
4. Cocoon of Pain
5. Betta in a Glue Jar
6. Emerald Widow Spider
7. Four Orphans and the Dreaming Tree
8. The Universe on the Wall
9. River of Starlight
10. Following Ants and Laughing Crows
11. Shell-less Molluscs
12. Amethyst Teardrop
13. Thunderstorm
14. A woman performing a traditional dance in the drizzle
15. Boys of the Night
16. Shadow Play
17. Vole Metropolis
18. Colorblind Painter
19. Eye of the Storm
20. Twins from the Kingdom of Tears
21. Baby seeds
22. Sinking Heart
23. Black Fireworks
24. The Cat Who Never Cried
25. Flocks of birds flying far away and black trees
26. The Adopted Piglet and the Man Who Murdered His Own Shadow
27. Soaring Song. Reading Notes | There is no more complete abandonment than infatuation / Deng Jiuyun