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  • Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton

  • The Gruesome True Story of a Man Who Survived Thailand's Deadliest Prison
  • By: T. M. Hoy
  • Narrated by: Jim Frangione
  • Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (78 ratings)

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Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton

By: T. M. Hoy
Narrated by: Jim Frangione
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Editorial reviews

The real-life account of an American serving time in a Thailand prison, Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton summons listeners to a gruesome realm of chronic hunger, unchecked violence, torture, degradation, and extortion. Performer Jim Frangione speaks with the resigned disquiet of an inmate struggling to come to grips with the cruelest confinement, his hushed baritone punctuated by shock and disgust as bizarre, often gruesome, prison rituals unfold routinely. T. M. Hoy's memoir, written in the hope he might bribe his way to freedom using its proceeds, is sure to inflame and excite listeners with its unnerving portrayal of a third world penal system.

Publisher's Summary

A collection of unspeakable degradation, fear, and agony through the eyes of an American locked up abroad.

Prison is harsh enough, but as a foreigner (farang) in a strange land, jail time is an even more horrifying reality. Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton is a collection of short stories chronicling T. M. Hoy’s descent into the harrowing world of Southeast Asian prison life. Through his eyes, listeners will experience the bizarre events of daily life in a Thai maximum security prison: feel the weight of the chains he wears; the stomachaches from lack of food; witness the murders, drug overdoses, torture, and unbridled cruelty that ensues.

Sentenced to life in prison, Hoy does his best to accept the fate he’s been given. While attempting to "adjust" to this third-world hellhole, he contracts tuberculosis and nearly loses his life.

Hoy’s stories are brutal and his words are heart-wrenching. Go places you’ve only seen in your nightmares, to a world in which few survive, and none emerge unscathed...and if you’re lucky, you’ll die before you really begin to suffer.

©2012 T. M. Hoy (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Standard South East Asian prison story

I didn’t find this that good, considering I have read and listened to many a prison story. If you want one of the best, check out The Cocaine Diaries, that would have to be an all time classic. This was good but it was odd in that there was no real story line and we never found out why he was in prison in the first place.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

No expression in the narrator

Don't like the narrator. Couldn't finish it because of monotony and expressionless reading.
Good story but found it boring.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I don’t ever want to go to Thailand after this

The author did a good job conveying how deplorable the jail was. It’s like a cautionary tale. A very real, very scary one that I’d rather be shot dead than end up in one of those places. New fear unlocked.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Decent story on life in prison

A decent story on life in prison, not the best I've read but not the worst either. The author is good with his writing and I was as encapsulated by the words as I was with the story itself. Feel like the audiobook wasn't very well put together though, some lines were repeated immediately after finishing first time round, and there was distortion in at least one part. I had to check to make sure it wasn't my connection!

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Dull and Monotone voice

Couldn’t get through the first chapter. The dull monotone narrator just didn’t draw me in

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Difficult performance

The performance just made me lose concentration multiple times, accentuated in the wrong areas. Performance didn't do the story justice, I just couldn't finish it.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Okay but….

Overall an interesting book, however the Author seemed to be pre occupied with trying to be to philosophical all the time, the book would have been much more enjoyable if the Author was a bit more down to earth, additional it was mentioned the word Farang is a derogatory word in Thai for Westerns is simply not the case and as this was at the start of the book it sort of set the tone for me. I am happy l did not use a credit for the book.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Bleak

A series of vignettes detailing a 5 year stint in Thai prison. Consistently bleak, with occasional moments of humour. Hoy is a good writer, with a simple, unadorned style.

Not for the feint of heart. The human rights abuses detailed within are unsettling.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting story. Good narrator

I found the story to be quite interesting and easy to follow. I especially liked the narrator's calm and peaceful voice. Very pleasant to listen to.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A good read.

it was a good read that keeps you interested through out the book.
4 stars.

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