Smile as They Bow

"This book was short-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2007. It’s a quirky, gritty love story that takes place within the subculture of nat worship. Nats are the spirits that dominate popular religious belief, and nat-worship is to Burmese Buddhists as, say, santeria is to Haitian Catholics. The annual nat festivals are noisy, glittery events that draw hordes of pilgrims; and officiating at these festivals are the nat-gadaw, the spirit mediums (or ‘wives’), a confraternity of cross-dressers to whom money and other gifts are offered for their intercession with the nats. Smile as They Bow takes place in Taungbyon, a town near Mandalay, where one of the biggest nat festivals is held each year. Daisy Bond is the nom-de-guerre of a splenetic 60-year-old nat-gadaw whose young assistant and lover, Min Min, is driving him mad with jealousy. Besieged by clamouring clients, mortally wounded by suspicions that Min Min is cheating on him, the foul-mouthed Daisy heaps abuse and humiliation on his young lover. The boy is in fact secretly in love with Pan Nyo, a beggar girl with the voice of an angel, and wants to marry her. But the love that conquers all is not always young love, oh no, as Daisy and Min Min will discover. A simple story on the face of it – yet it took 12 years for the censors in Burma to allow the publication of Smile as They Bow. Reading between the lines, it’s not difficult to see why. Spirit worship, homosexuals, beggars, exploitation, poverty, greed – these are subjects abhorred and banned by repressive regimes the world over. How much more so when laughter and heartbreak enliven the offending text. Read it for yourself and laugh. Then read it and weep."