Author: Thant Myint-U

Language: English

Summary: What do we really know about Burma and its history? And what can Burma’s past tell us about its present and even its future? For nearly two decades Western governments and a growing activist community have been frustrated in their attempts to bring about a freer and more democratic Burma―through sanctions and tourist boycotts―only to see an apparent slide toward even harsher dictatorship. Now Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, and the story of his own family, in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Through his prominent family’s stories and those of others, he portrays Burma’s rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through a sixty-year civil war that continues today―the longest-running war anywhere in the world. The River of Lost Footsteps is a work at once personal and global, a “brisk, vivid history” (Philip Delves Broughton, The Wall Street Journal) that makes Burma accessible and enthralling. – Source: Amazon.com

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Author: Nu Nu Yi

Language: English

Summary: A spirit festival in a small Burmese village is the backdrop to this absorbing novel, one of the few books from Myanmar to have been translated into English. Nu Nu Yi’s sensual descriptions of the hustle and bustle of the event – to which people from all walks of life flock to pay dancers to perform as a way of atoning for their misdeeds and drawing down blessings – are a joy to read. The colourful setting is second only to the vitality of the central character, Daisy Bond, a foul-mouthed transgender spirit dancer with a talent for deception. Source: The Guardian

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