Plucked from her rural life, Na Ga is abandoned in Rangoon. Later, she finds herself chasing the dream of a new life in Thailand, where further betrayals and violations await.

But now she sits alone in a hotel room in Wanting, a godforsaken town on the Chinese-Burmese border.

Na Ga was always in search of a better life. At its centre is John Flory, “the lone and lacking individual trapped within a bigger system that is undermining the better side of human nature”. This modern classic from the waning days of British colonialism in Burma is “a portrait of the dark side of the British Raj”. Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, in part through a telling of his own family’s history in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and appalling. The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma So begins an extraordinary journey overland to Burma accompanied by an enchanting yet elusive woman.įrom the Man Booker Prize shortlisted author of Sea of Poppies comes the story of Rajkumar, a boy working on a market stall outside the royal palace when the British force the Burmese royalty into exile. The Glass Palace is a sweeping story of Burma and Malaya over a span of 100 years that has rightly become a modern classic. In 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. In these astonishing letters Suu Kyi reaches out beyond Burma’s borders to paint for her readers a vivid and poignant picture of her native land. The 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 tranquil quads of Cambridge.Ī collection from the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. We present our view of the best books about Myanmar, listed below in no particular order. However, today, the country’s poets, authors and journalists are writing with unprecedented freedom and looking to a future of hope, optimism and democracy. Understandably, writers have for decades focused on the shadows of occupation, brutality and cronyism. For Myanmar, it had to be George Orwell’s Burmese Days, a dark and fascinating insight into British colonial Burma and the disgust Orwell felt towards the system he was a part of.Īs with Orwell’s novel, much of Burmese modern literature is intertwined with the country’s complex history: conquered by the Mongols, colonised by the British, occupied by the Japanese and then ruled by an oppressive military junta from 1962 to 2011. We wrap up our series on this extraordinary country by browsing through the best books about Myanmar and the insights offered within their pagesīefore I visit a country, I like to read a book or two about the destination to get a sense of the place and culture.

Apyar blue book