In WHEN I WAS A CHILD, Natthinee Khot-asa Jones—Nat—recounts her childhood in a 1980s Thai village, where she was raised by her sexagenarian widower father. You will enter Huaytamon village in Sisaket Province Thailand, located near the Cambodian border. This idyllic locale is unique, and at first it may feel otherworldly, but as you read, the village and its inhabitants will become real. You will laugh at our protagonist’s naïve but well-intentioned actions, seeing the universality in her rural, pre-technology childhood. Using honesty and humor, Nat depicts the struggles of maturing from a girl to a young woman. These true stories range from Nat being duped by her aunts with a dubious way to make her chest grow into breasts to a purposeful bicycle accident in hopes of staying home from school.
In each of these stories a daughter’s love for her father grows deeper and stronger.
