The Salamander’s Tail – a spy novel by Michael Vatikiotis

Michael Vatikiotis, author of the best-selling Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia, is coming to the FCCT to launch his compelling new book, The Salamander’s Tail, a spy novel set along the Thai-Burma border that  traverses a fault line of strategic sparring between the United States and China on the cusp of a new Cold War.

Inspired and informed by four decades of experience as a journalist and private diplomat covering conflict in Asia, Vatikiotis brings to life one of the world’s most dangerous contemporary conflicts. The novel centres around Lance Friend, a rootless English do-gooder working for an environmental NGO in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. Friend finds himself caught up in a high-stakes geopolitical contest between the US and China, using the long civil war in neighbouring Burma as a proxy battlefield.

Arrayed on either side of the Thai-Burma border is a cast of colourful characters escaping past lives to chase ideals, adventure and profit in the bad lands of Southeast Asia.

Praise for the book is already rolling in. “If Year of Living Dangerously was the classic Southeast Asian novel, The Salamander's Tail takes its place. A spy novel for the ages” says Jane Perlez, a former New York Times correspondent in Asia.

“A thoughtful and unsettling portrait of a region where environmental crisis, insurgency, and great-power rivalry intersect,” said Thant Myint U, author of The River of Lost Footsteps and The Hidden History of Burma.

Michael Vatikiotis has been a writer, broadcaster, journalist and private diplomat in Asia for nearly 40 years. His previous books include Indonesian Politics Under Suharto and Political Change in Southeast Asia, Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia and Lives Between the Lines: A Journey in Search of the Lost Levant. His novels include The Spice Garden and The Painter of Lost Souls. Vatikiotis also contributes regularly to podcasts, and to Nikkei Asia and other journals.

Vatikiotis is a graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), earned his doctorate, which was on Thailand, from Oxford University. He speaks both Thai and Indonesian. He will speak about the book and what inspired it, as well as real-world events that shaped the story.

The author discuss his work at the FCCT with Keith Richburg, a member of the Washington Post’s editorial board since 2023, and a veteran observer of China and Southeast Asia. Richburg’s storied career as a foreign correspondent includes postings as the Post’s bureau chief in Beijing and Hong Kong. He was president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong from 2021 to 2023.

Members who wish to book in advance should email info@fccthai.com or call the FCCT office on 02-652-0580.

Non-members can use this link.