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The 15 best books about Myanmar
We end our series on this extraordinary country by browsing the best books about Myanmar and the insights offered within their pages. Before visiting a country, I like to read a book or two about the destination to get a feel for the place and culture. For Myanmar, it had to be George Orwell's Burmese Days, a dark and fascinating look into British colonial Burma and the disgust Orwell felt at the system he was a part of. As with Orwell's novel, much of Burmese modern literature is intertwined with the country's complex history: from the...
The 15 best books about Myanmar
We end our series on this extraordinary country by browsing the best books about Myanmar and the insights offered within their pages
Before I visit a country, I like to read a book or two about the destination to get a feel for the place and culture. For Myanmar, it had to be George Orwell's Burmese Days, a dark and fascinating look into British colonial Burma and the disgust Orwell felt at the system he was a part of.
As with Orwell's novel, much of Burmese modern literature is intertwined with the country's complex history: conquered by the Mongols, colonized by the British, occupied by the Japanese, and then ruled by an oppressive military junta from 1962 to 2011.
Understandably, writers have spent decades focusing on the shadows of occupation, brutality and nepotism. Today, however, the country's poets, authors and journalists write with unprecedented freedom and look to a future full of hope, optimism and democracy.
We present our view of the best books about Myanmar, listed below in no particular order.
The best books about Myanmar
| 1. | From the Land of the Green Ghosts by Pascal Khoo ThweThe astonishing story of a young man's upbringing in a remote tribal village in 1930s Burma and his journey from a strife-torn country to the quiet neighborhoods of Cambridge. |
| 2. | Letters from Burmaby Aung San Suu KyiCollection of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. In these astonishing letters, Suu Kyi reaches beyond Burma's borders to give her readers a vivid and poignant picture of her homeland. |
| 3. | The Piano Tuner by Daniel MasonIn 1886, piano tuner Edgar Drake receives an unusual request to leave his quiet English life and travel to the jungles of Burma to repair a rare piano. So begins an extraordinary journey overland to Burma, accompanied by an enchanting but elusive woman. |
| 4. | The Glass Palaceby Amitav GhoshFrom the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Sea of Poppies comes the story of Rajkumar, a boy working at a market stall outside the royal palace when the British force the Burmese royal family into exile. The Glass Palace is a sweeping tale of Burma and Malaya over a 100-year period that has rightly become a modern classic. |
| 5. | The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burmaby Thant Myint-U Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, in part by telling the story of his own family in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic and frightening. |
| 6. | Burmese Days by George Orwell This modern classic from the final days of British colonialism in Burma is “a portrait of the dark side of the British Raj.” The focus is on John Flory, “the lonely and missing individual trapped in a larger system that undermines the better side of human nature.” |
| 7. | The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-YoneNa Ga was always looking for a better life. But now she sits alone in a hotel room in Wanting, a godforsaken town on the Chinese-Burmese border. Torn from her rural life, Na Ga is abandoned in Yangon. She later pursues the dream of a new life in Thailand, where further betrayal and violations await her. |
| 8. | Under the Dragon: A Journey Through Burmaby Rory MacLeanAfter the brutal suppression of an unarmed national uprising, Rory MacLean seized the opportunity to visit Burma. As he traveled from Rangoon to the heart of the Golden Triangle, he heard stories of ordinary people struggling to survive under one of the world's most brutal and repressive regimes. |
| 9. | Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy TanIn this popular fiction, 11 Americans leave their resort in Burma's southern Shan State for a Christmas morning tour—and disappear. Through twists of fate, curses and just plain human error, they find themselves lost deep in the Burmese jungle. |
| 10. | In Search of George Orwell in Burmaby Emma LarkinIn this riveting memoir, Emma Larkin recounts the year she spent traveling through Burma, using as a compass the life and work of George Orwell, whom many intellectuals from Burma's underground teahouses call "the Prophet." |
| 11. | Freedom from Fear and Other Writings of Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi's collected writings - edited by her late husband, whom the ruling military junta prevented from visiting Burma - reflect her greatest hopes and fears for her countrymen and her concerns about the need for international cooperation in the ongoing fight for Burma's freedom. |
| 12. | Golden Earth: Traveling in Burmaby Norman LewisNorman Lewis describes a country of breathtaking natural beauty. Hitchhiking with the army and traveling merchants, Lewis is treated to hospitality throughout this war-torn land, revealing a land where "the state of the soul replaces that of the stock market as the subject of polite conversation." |
| 13. | Harp of Burmaby Michio TakeyamaHarp of Burma is Japan's haunting response to Germany's requiem for the First World War, All Quiet on the Western Front. Harp of Burma portrays a company of Japanese troops who lose a desperate campaign against British forces in the tropical jungles of Burma. |
| 14. | Burma Chroniclesby Guy DelisleGuy Delisle's travelogue revolves around a year he spent in Burma with his wife and son. This unique and extraordinary comic collection is an impressive and moving work of journalism. |
| fifteen. | The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly Teza once electrified the people of Burma with his protest songs against the dictatorship. Arrested by the Burmese secret police during the days of mass protests, he was sentenced to seven years to 20 years in solitary confinement, cut off from his family and contact with other prisoners. |
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