Ostensibly an attempt to retrace the physical origins of George Orwell’s novel Burmese Days, Secret Histories is actually a superbly concise and deeply scary history lesson in the fate of pre and post-colonial Myanmar.
– Emma Larkin
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This is a review I wrote originally for my books website SpikeMagazine.com. Here’s an excerpt from the review:
“Secret Histories, like Anna Funder’s Stasiland which describes life in the totalitarian communist state of East Germany, provides a personal perspective of a truly appalling regime that lets the reader begin to understand what it is like to live day to day under such an oppressive government. One thing that endeared me to the Burmans straight away was their love of reading, as described by Larkin: unsurprising due to the lack of real information which they receive, but also a national pastime and passion that has led numerous people to preserve secret libraries of books that have otherwise been banned by the authorities.
Whilst everyday life is undeniable misery in Myanmar, the people who Larkin describes are still full of life, some how finding the will to live and live fully despite their most restrictive of circumstances and to try and make tiny but vital movements towards making their country become free again.”
You can read the full review of Emma Larkin’s Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in A Burmese Teashop at SpikeMagazine.com
