- The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma by Thant Myint-U 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, 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. 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" that makes Burma accessible and enthralling.
- From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey by Pascal Khoo Thwe. In 1988, Dr. John Casey, a professor visiting Burma, meets Pascal, a waiter in Mandalay with a passion for the works of James Joyce, and the encounter changes both their lives. Pascal, a member of the Kayan Padaung tribe, was the first member of his community to study English at a university. Within months of his meeting with Dr. Casey, Pascal's world lay in ruins. Burma's military dictatorship forces him to sacrifice his studies, and the regime's brutal armed forces murder his lover. Fleeing to the jungle, he becomes a guerrilla fighter in the life-or-death struggle against the government. In desperation, he writes a letter to the Englishman he met in Mandalay. Miraculously reaching its destination, the letter leads to Pascal's rescue and his enrollment in Cambridge University, where he is the first Burmese tribesman ever to attend. From the Land of Green Ghosts unforgettably evokes the realities of life in modern-day Burma and one man's long journey to freedom despite almost unimaginable odds.
- Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin. A fascinating political travelogue that traces the life and work of George Orwell in Southeast Asia. The American writer Emma Larkin spent years traveling in Burma, and she's come to know all too well the many ways this brutal police state can be described as "Orwellian." But Burma's connection to George Orwell is not merely metaphorical. Orwell's mother was born in Burma, and he was fundamentally shaped by his experiences in Burma as a young man working for the British Imperial Police. Emma Larkin was frequently told by Burmese acquaintances that Orwell did not write one book about their country - his first novel, Burmese Days, but in fact he wrote the "trilogy" that included Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. In one of the most intrepid political travelogues in recent memory, Emma Larkin tells of the year she spent traveling through Burma using the life and work of George Orwell as her compass. Going from Mandalay and Rangoon to poor delta backwaters and up to the old hill-station towns in the mountains of Burma's far north, Larkin visits the places where Orwell worked and lived, and the places his books still live. She brings to vivid life a country and a people cut off from the rest of the world, and from one another, by the ruling military junta and its vast network of spies and informers.
- Land of a Thousand Eyes: The Subtle Pleasures of Everyday Life in Myanmar by Peter Olszewski. A vivid, insider’s account of one of the most inaccessible and mysterious countries in Asia, this book looks beyond topographical features to discover the psyche of the people of Myanmar. Appointed to train local journalists for 18 months at the English-language weekly The Myanmar Times, and despite a measure of danger in accepting the assignment, Peter Olszewski throws himself into the daily life and culture of Yangon—even finding himself in a real-life, fairy-tale romance.
- Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi - an unforgettable collection from the Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. In these astonishing letters, Aung San Suu Kyi reaches out beyond Burma's borders to paint for her readers a vivid and poignant picture of her native land. Here she celebrates the courageous army officers, academics, actors and everyday people who have supported the National League for Democracy, often at great risk to their own lives. She reveals the impact of political decisions on the people of Burma, from the terrible cost to the children of imprisoned dissidents, allowed to see their parents for only fifteen minutes every two weeks, to the effect of inflation on the national diet and of state repression on traditions of hospitality. She also evokes the beauty of the country's seasons and scenery, customs and festivities that remain so close to her heart. Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's National League for Democracy was placed under house arrest in Rangoon in 1989, where she remained for almost 15 of the 21 years until her release in 2010, becoming one of the world's most prominent political prisoners.
- The Glass Palace: A Novel by Amitav Ghosh. Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Mandalay's Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her. The struggles that have made Burma, India, and Malaya the places they are today are illuminated in this wonderful novel by the writer Chitra Divakaruni calls “a master storyteller.”
- Burmese Days: A Novel by George Orwell. Orwell draws on his years of experience in India to tell this story of the waning days of British imperialism. A handful of Englishmen living in a settlement in Burma congregate in the European Club, drink whiskey, and argue over an impending order to admit a token Asian.
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