Uruda Covin's book about melancholic romance and untimely death is hot property on bookshelves. Yod Namwan Nai Yard Namta (literally "a drop of sweet in the trace of tears") is a roman à clef drawing on her tragic relationship with Kanokphong Songsomphan, a literary star who passed away in 2006 at the age of 40.
Emerging from the experience, Uruda has been a prolific writer known for her popular commercial books as well as literary creations. She has published many collections of short stories, a compilation of her culinary column, as well as novels and poetry.
What are you reading?
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, and Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. Especially The Idiot, which is by my bedside. I read it little by little, forward and backward, because it's so good I don't want it to end too quickly. I've finished other books while I'm still on The Idiot.
What is the book you keep returning to?
Laughable Loves by Milan Kundera. It's a collection of short stories which often inspires me to write another one of my own.
Is there a book that makes you cry?
No. There are books that make me sad, but not cry. My tears live deep inside me.
And the last book that made you laugh?
A Japanese manga Osen.
Your latest book deals with love and death. Which book on the same theme would you recommend to readers?
Out Of Africa by Karen Blixen. I like the author's sensitivity and worldview, which is full of her love of places and the people. It's a love story and also a story about loss. It's full of sadness, but it's not melodramatic.
If you could invite any writers to dinner, one man and one woman, who would they be?
Marguerite Duras and Milan Kundera, because they are my favourite writers of all time.
Paper or e-books?
Anything, I have no problem whatsoever.
