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. 'Burma Chronicles' is drawn with a minimal line, and interspersed with wordless vignettes and moments of Delisle's distinctive slapstick humour.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. Delisle's deft and recognisable renderings take note of almsgiving rituals, daylong power-cuts and rampant heroin use in outlying regions, in this place where catastrophic mismanagement and ironhanded rule come up against profound resilience of spirit, expatriate life ambles along, and non-governmental organisations struggle with the risk of co-option by the military junta. In this country notorious for its use of concealment and isolation as social control - where scissors-wielding censors monitor the papers, the de facto leader of the opposition has been under decade-long house arrest, insurgent-controlled regions are effectively cut off from the world, and rumour is the most reliable source of current information - he turns his gaze to the everyday for a sense of the bigger picture. After developing his acclaimed style of firsthand reporting with his bestselling graphic novels 'Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea' and 'Shenzen: A Travelogue from China', Guy Delisle is back with 'Burma Chronicles'.

Burma chronicles by guy delisle