From Chapter 16 of Bangkok Tattoo, a crime thriller by John Burdett.
His third novel, Bangkok Haunts, starring Detective Sonchai Jittlecheep of the Royal Thai Police, was just published a couple of months ago. These moody stories of Thailand’s underbelly, filled with stunning Thai whores, tricky espionage and plenty of Buddhist theology, simply rock:
Rebirth, farang (in case you’re wondering): You are lounging on a magnificent balcony open to the starry sky, divine music is playing with such exquisite perfection you can hardly stand it, when all of a sudden something terrible occurs: the magical sounds break up into an obscene cacophony. What is happening? Are you dying? You could put it that way. That awful noise is the first scream of an infant: you. You have been born into a human body hardwired with each and every transgression form the last time around, and now you must spend the next seventy years clawing your way back to the music. No wonder we cry.