Pim Wangtechawat’s debut novel The Moon Represents My Heart, released in June, has made her part of the small but growing group of Thai authors published internationally – catching the eye of Hollywood star Gemma Chan and Netflix, who have optioned the work.

Earlier this year, Welcome Me to the Kingdom by Mai Nardone was recognised as a New York Times editor’s choice, while Pitchaya Sudbanthad’s swirling 2019 novel Bangkok Wakes to Rain has won rave reviews.

Many authors dream of a big-name screen adaptation, and Pim was no different.

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“When my agent said that someone read your book, and it was Gemma, I screamed,” says Pim.

The English-language sections of Bangkok bookshops sometimes feel dominated by sleazy crime thrillers playing on the Thai capital’s reputation for seediness and vice.

Keen to escape those stereotypes, Pim centred her novel on a time-travelling Chinese family in London and Hong Kong.

“I was very scared at one point because I was like, ‘Oh, am I Chinese enough to write this?’” she said.

“And then I think that white authors don’t have to question, ‘Am I white enough to write this book?’”

Growing up in Bangkok, Pim started out reading European works translated into Thai, before later reading them in the original.

Part of the reason for the lack of internationally respected Thai authors, she says, was the failure of Thai schools to promote a home-grown “literature culture, writing-reading culture, the way they do in the UK for example”.

While authors like Pim – who writes in English – have been published abroad with success, translated Thai novels remain few and far between.

One author bucking that trend is Uthis Haemamool, whose latest book, The Fabulist, examines the idea of national identity.

Released by Penguin in April, it was his first to be picked up by a foreign publisher, despite his having written a number of award-winning books.

“We question why we can’t break through to the foreign market,” says a palpably frustrated Uthis. “Why is nobody interested, is it not good enough?”

One of his translators, Palin Ansusinha – who also co-founded Soi Squad, a Bangkok literary agency promoting English and Thai translations – says the kingdom remained a forgotten corner of the literary world.

“I think it’s the lack of connection that we have to the global publishing ecosystem,” she says.

In the past 15 years, only three Thai books have been translated for the US market, while neighbouring Vietnam has seen 15 translations, according to the Translation Database, which tracks global literature.

Meanwhile, the new government of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has made much of its desire to promote Thailand’s “soft power”, but so far this has focused on food and films, not literature.

Palin says the commitment rings hollow and Bangkok could be doing more to raise the profile of Thai writing.

“There’s a lot of buzz around the words ‘soft power’ right now … I feel like it’s been so overused and abused that it has literally no meaning now,” she says, suggesting the government only celebrated artists after the fact, rather than nurturing them from the start.

“It’s more like cherry-picking on the finished product.”

Uthis offers a similar take. “You only see them when they succeed,” he says.