Ever since Asia Books has stopped publishing fiction and now concentrates on distribution only, other regional publishing houses had a chance of making a name for themselves. And so, Monsoon Books, a Singapore-based independent publisher, has probably become the leader in quality fiction and non-fiction books in Southeast Asia. One of their latest releases is Stage IV by Thailand-based American author Eric R. Sysak, a novel set on the resort beach of Hua Hin.
The premise of Stage IV is the concept of viatication, which involves a terminally ill person selling his life insurance to a third party who, upon his death, cashes in. Lawson Banks, a stage IV cancer “survivor,” decides to spend his last months on Earth (and the insurance money cashed in advance from unscrupulous opportunists) in Thailand. Here, with the help of Benz, a former bar girl, Somastatin, a drug he procures cheaply from India, and the relaxed Hua Hin beachfront, Lawson celebrates his seventh year of a careless life in the Land of Smiles.
Unfortunately for him, a chain of unstoppable events unleash when Keller, the lawyer who bought Lawson’s life insurance, needs a quick flow of cash and decides that his client’s time to pay back has long been due. For Lawson Banks, that means only one thing: death! Keller would stop at nothing and so Lawson finds himself in a run-or-get-killed-race he physically has no chance of winning.
On top of that, Benz’s insistence of buying a shophouse, his dwindling finances, the regrets he feels for abandoning his son back in the States, and the mysterious influences a crippled Thai police colonel has on his life, put Lawson in a depressing state of mind. Doubts about his girlfriend’s intentions soon become a “certainty” that she wants him killed but, at the same time, Lawson feels that separation from her is worse than death itself.
A long time resident of Thailand, Erich Sysak has an acute eye for all things Thai. His narrative is littered with bits and pieces of known and no-so-well-known trivia about what Thais are and are not. Bottom line, Stage IV promises that, although “Thailand sounded like the Wild West,” it is worth the risks, especially when an exquisite Thai woman with a passion for cooking has a central role in the entire picture. Luckily for Lawson, he does manage to survive the onslaught of both his disease and the murdering intents of his lawyer, but at what costs, it rests with the reader to find out.
On finishing the book, I started wondering what genre could Erich’s Stage IV be labeled with? Yes, it’s true, there are enough bar girl scenes in the books to keep everyone entertained, but it feels like Stage IV is more than that. It’s a witty rollercoaster of a novel with enough blood, death, and struggles for survival to be easily shelved under the Crime Books section of any bookstore. So, if you’re looking for some well-written fiction with an Asian flavour, Stage IV is available on both the publisher’s website and other leading online and offline bookstores.
Erich R. Sysak is the author of two other books: Dog Catcher (Monsoon Books, 2006), a novel set in his home state of Florida, and Water Heart (Kindle Books, 2010), a more literary novel also set on the beaches of Hua Hin.
