"The story of one village, nestled in the Thai jungle, that has fallen under the spell of a mysterious religious leader; and the story of a family's defiance. In the village of Praeknamdang, a ten-year-old boy has big dreams of becoming a star shadow puppeteer. He and his parents, however, are the objects of a powerful man's rancor as they alone dare to doubt his claim of being the local goddess's medium. One summer day, while out in the fields grazing his beloved oxen and putting on a show for his friends, the boy finds himself locked in a struggle with a giant king cobra, a snake the influential pretender would claim was sent by the goddess to punish him and his family. Set in the same world as Sangsuk's beloved novel The Understory, Venom is a parable about an underdog's fight in a world that conspires against him"--