{"product_id":"2940045463546","title":"Opus 50","description":"\u003cp\u003eS.P.Somtow has assembled a collection of essays, poems, and fiction - and tells all about his first published poem from 1967, which earned a lengthy shelf life when it was used as the epigraph for a best-selling autobiography by Shirley MacLaine - to his first professional fiction sale in 1977 - to stories that won major awards like the World Fantasy Award. Here, also, are some of his acerbic commentaries from Thai and US magazines, which rarely shied away from controversial subjects.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eS.P.Somtow's fiftieth book celebrates a lifetime of achievement as the internationally acclaimed author of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"...the most well known expatriate Thai in the world.\" - International Herald Tribune\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePreface by the Author\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a book that looks back, so I think I will begin with the present, and slowly work my way back to the past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is a bit of indulgence. You see, I realized recently that I have two completely different sets of friends, two completely different lives — two countries. Trying to bring these two worlds together, I suppose, is the aim of Opus 50. I wanted a quick way to explain to each set of friends what I do with my other set.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe’ll start with a little speech I gave in late 2006. It’s an impromptu thing; we had just had a coup, and the scheduled speaker, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, decided not to show up “for political reasons”— in a typically non-Thai misreading of the entire situation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLater, it would transpire that I, too, had perhaps misread the situation. But of that, more later.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Proglen","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47078116983024,"sku":"2940045463546","price":4.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940045463546_p0.jpg?v=1763679513","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940045463546","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}