A crippled boy plays with his puppets and dreams of glory until the female cobra he disturbs by his show rushes at him. The life-and-death struggle that follows has but a predictable end – or has it? This tale has been translated into seven European languages, not to mention Braille, has been turned into a play in Paris, and has brought immediate recognition to its author, Saneh Sangsuk, born 1957, as a ‘great contemporary writer’.