海角大神

Colin Cotterill has little in common with his alter ego. For starters, he鈥檚 no 鈥済host doctor.鈥� Nor has he ever performed an autopsy. And yet what would good old Dr. Siri Paiboun do without him?

Mr. Cotterill鈥檚 relationship to the wise septuagenarian coroner/medium/sleuth resembles that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Sherlock Holmes. Together, author and protagonist make for a memorable team in unraveling the murder mysteries that haunt their land.

Except in Cotterill鈥檚 case, the land is Laos. A small communist holdout between Thailand and Vietnam, it鈥檚 a country where books are curiosities: Homegrown literature is almost nonexistent in Laos, and publishing is mostly limited to textbooks.

But now the London-born author is putting Laos on the literary map as a backdrop for his mystery novels featuring an all-Lao cast of characters. He鈥檚 also lending a hand in a campaign to distribute children鈥檚 books to Lao kids.

鈥淭he idea of reading for pleasure is missing in Laos,鈥� says Cotterill, a longtime teacher and child-protection advocate in Southeast Asia and Africa who now lives in Thailand. 鈥淔ew people even own books.鈥�

Cotterill鈥檚 bibliophilic protagonist is no exception. Dr. Siri treasures his battered French dictionary and his antiquated pathology textbook; soon, though, even these perish in flames sparked by a grenade intended for him.

In the novels, Dr. Siri is a latecomer to sleuthing; likewise, Cotterill is a late-blooming writer.

A ruddy-cheeked man with boyish features, a toothy smile, and wavy hair bunched into a raffish knot, Cotterill picked up the pen only a few years ago. While contributing essays and editorial cartoons to Thai papers, he tried his hand at two detective novels, which were published in Thailand. They sold, he quips, 鈥渢wo and a half copies a month at the height of their popularity.... Did I give up? Absolutely!鈥�

鈥淭he Coroner鈥檚 Lunch鈥� debuted in 2004, recounting颅 Dr. Siri鈥檚 adventures in the turbulent year of 1976: The doctor is appointed state coroner after the Lao royal family has been deposed by the communist Pathet Lao movement, and the professional classes have fled.

To Cotterill鈥檚 surprise, the book was an instant hit. 鈥淪uddenly all hell broke loose,鈥� Cotterill recalls. 鈥淚 started to get fan mail and there were reviews in mass-circulation newspapers.鈥� The New York Times Book Review called the novel 鈥渨onderfully fresh and exotic.鈥� The book was shortlisted for this year鈥檚 Dagger Award by the British Crime Writers鈥� Association, and Cotterill鈥檚 novels have been translated into French, Swedish, Italian, and Japanese.

Last year Cotterill quit his post as a lecturer at Chiang Mai University in northern Thailand to embark on a full-time writing career. The sixth Dr. Siri book, 鈥淭he Merry Misogynist,鈥� is due out next August in the US, and Cotterill is already working on the seventh.

Along with introducing Laos to foreign readers, the books benefit the country in other ways, too. During a recent tour in the US, the author ended readings by asking fans to help buy books for Lao kids. It was 鈥渇or Dr. Siri,鈥� he told them.

鈥淩eaders can fall in love with a character, and I am the representative of that character,鈥� Cotterill explains. 鈥淧eople are often wary of giving donations to strangers,鈥� he adds, 鈥渂ut in this case it鈥檚 someone they know they can trust ... even if he鈥檚 a fictional character.鈥�

Indeed, 鈥淒r. Siri鈥� is hard at work in Laos. When he鈥檚 not footing the bill for new children鈥檚 books, he鈥檚 the nominal head of the Dr. Siri Scholarship Program, a fund to help train teachers at a college in northern Laos. Students from remote hill-tribe villages 鈥� many of them sponsored by Dr. Siri鈥檚 foreign readers 颅鈥� come to learn teaching skills, then return home to start schools in communities where there are none.

鈥淚 have a new career thanks to Laos,鈥� Cotterill says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 natural I should give something back. The better Dr. Siri does, the more I can give back.鈥�

In 2003, while doing research in Luang Prabang for his second Dr. Siri novel, 鈥淭hirty Three Teeth,鈥� Cotterill was approached by a young girl. She begged for money to buy candy; when he told her sweets were bad for her, she asked for 鈥渁 little storybook.鈥� Cotterill and the girl trooped around the local market, bookshops, and the printer鈥檚 works, but their search turned up only 鈥渄ust-covered, floppy-backed high-school textbooks,鈥� he says.

So Cotterill launched 鈥淏ooks for Laos,鈥� 鈥渋mporting, mailing and smuggling鈥� children鈥檚 books into the country. He had books translated into Lao, pasted translations beside the original text, and gave them to schools and hospitals.

These days he鈥檚 donating royalties from his mystery-novel sales to a parallel book-distributing initiative, Big Brother Mouse. The organization, set up two years ago by an American expat publisher and run by a Lao staff, translates, illustrates, publishes, and distributes books for Lao children while also promoting a reading culture. The group already boasts some 70 titles. Staffers also carry books to children in remote villages.

鈥淥ften, when Lao kids receive their first storybook,鈥� says Sasha Alyson, the founder of Big Brother Mouse, 鈥渢hey slowly read the first page, then stop. You show them the next page. They read again and stop. When they see there鈥檚 more, a smile comes over their face. Incredibly, they鈥檝e never seen a book before.鈥�

鈥⑩赌⑩赌�

Cotterill first set foot in Laos in 1990, when he led a UNESCO program to train new English teachers. But he鈥檇 fallen in love with the country years before, in the late 1970s, while teaching Lao refugees in Australia. There, he was captivated by the reminiscences of royalist exiles. Three decades later, one of them 鈥� an elderly parliamentarian pining for the ancien r茅gime 鈥� 颅would inspire the character of Dr. Siri.

Cotterill鈥檚 realistic portrayal of Lao people and their culture has earned him plaudits with reviewers and Lao readers. 鈥淭he way you tell about life in Vientiane,鈥� a Lao-born 茅migr茅 historian wrote to him, 鈥渋s quite extraordinary and most entertaining. Please keep Dr. Siri alive!鈥� In Laos, the first four Dr. Siri books will soon be available in English in local editions; 鈥淭he Coroner鈥檚 Lunch鈥� is being translated into Lao.

鈥淐olin takes some liberties, but remains faithful to Lao culture as a whole,鈥� says Lao-American poet Bryan Thao Worra, who edits Bakka Magazine, a Lao literary journal. Native readers who have read the English editions, he adds, love the books, which 鈥渃an [also] be a very interesting way for foreign readers to become acquainted with Laos.鈥�

Abroad, some crime-mystery purists have pooh-poohed the novels鈥� supernatural elements,颅 which include spirits who help Dr. Siri solve murder cases. But Cotterill insists that 鈥測ou can鈥檛 write a book set in Laos without reference to the supernatural.鈥� Local animistic beliefs, which ascribe individual will to plants, animals, and even inanimate objects, permeate daily life in Laos. Ghosts and spirits are considered rampant. In Pakse, a southern Lao town, Cotterill lived in a house said to be haunted by a dead general: 鈥淓veryone in the village talked to him and couldn鈥檛 fathom how I didn鈥檛 see him.鈥�

Like any good sleuth or fiction writer trying to understand the complicated beliefs of this cloistered, idiosyncratic land, Cotterill adds, 鈥淚 wish I could鈥檝e sat down with him for an interview.鈥�