A national bestseller for two years, the winner of the
Governor General’s Award in 1993, and a New York Times Notable Travel Book of
the Year in 2000, Touch the Dragon, A Thai Journal is a rare and
dazzling exploration of a young writer’s brave new world. In Timothy Findley’s
words, this book is “a splendid evocation of a place and people.”
Connelly is seventeen when she leaves Canada for Denchai to attend her last
year of high school at a Thai school. Through energetic language and beautiful
imagery, through humour and careful observation of the families, school friends
and Buddhist rituals around her, Karen Connelly recreates life in a small
village in northern Thailand. Not only does she illuminate another culture, she
also shows how this strange, sometimes difficult place touched and changed her,
allowing her to receive and understand a rich, common humanity.