Remembrances of Red Trauma (9) – Awakened in May 2010

Guest contribution by Wirawat Somnuek

“… he was blinded by a single bullet lodged in his skull, but he gained a new sight from the very same bullet. And when he awakened to the new sight, he saw that the country in which he lived was covered in darkness. There was no escape, no refuge, and no justice. There was no place for his faith. Everything that he once laid eyes on was but an illusion…”

The above passage is from the graphic novel Ta Sawang (Awakened) by Claudio Sopranzetti, which was translated from the Italian original Il Re di Bangkok into Thai and published this year by the Reading Italy publishing house.

The novel draws on historical events in Thailand between 1977 and 2007 and presents a fictional story and characters that are a composite of true events and people. The story is also informed by a decade of anthropological research in Thailand and hundreds of…