A Savage Dreamland
Author | : David Eimer |
Publisher | : Bloomsbury Publishing |
Total Pages | : 385 |
Release | : 2020-06-11 |
ISBN-10 | : 9781408883815 |
ISBN-13 | : 1408883813 |
Rating | : 4/5 (15 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: In a country where building a temple takes priority over installing traffic lights, golf courses are ploughed out alongside fields of opium poppies and fortune-tellers are consulted on a daily basis even by the government, any sepia-tinged and colonial idea of Burma is long out of date. To explore its magic and depths, David Eimer takes his narrative through history, class and geography, including areas still barred to foreigners. This is a story balanced by historical context but related by the people with whom Eimer shares his time, from granddaughters of former presidents to the squatters in Yangon's shacks, from former political exiles to jade miners digging for their fortune in the far north.