"A Joan Didionesque heroine . . . in Graham Greene's Far East . . . a telling portrait of a woman, a marriage, and a culture."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Claire, the young bride of a government contractor, arrives in Bangkok with her husband on March 9, 1967, the day U.S. planes begin bombing runs on North Vietnam. At a dinner party, she meets and befriends Jim Thompson, the real-life American entrepreneur and founder of the Thai Silk Company. Weeks later, on Easter Sunday, Thompson vanishes without a trace in the Thai highlands. As the political implications of Thompson's disappearance surface, Claire becomes increasingly obsessed with his fate. Her quest into what happened, fueled by the longing and loneliness she feels in an exotic land marked by growing unrest, leads to a tragic truth that becomes a metaphor for two cultures in collision. Written in powerful, arresting prose, this taut suspense novel further establishes Lily Tuck as a major voice in literary fiction.

"Swift, sharp, and elegant . . . Reading Siam is like having your senses brushed by silk."--John Casey

2000 PEN/Faulkner Award Nominee