The Salamander’s Tail – The new spy novel from Michael Vatikiotis

Michael Vatikiotis, author of the best-selling Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia, will launch a compelling new book, a spy novel set along the Thai-Burma border.

The Salamander’s Tail 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.

Reviews extolling the book are already coming 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, former New York Times correspondent in Asia. “A thoughtful and unsettling portrait of a region where environmental crisis, insurgency, and great-power rivalry intersect,” remarked 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, to the 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, in a moderated discussion, and will take questions from the audience. Copies of the book will be available at the event.

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.