Burma Chronicles

By Guy Delisle
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FormatUSUK
Hardcover$19.95 Buy£12.99 Buy

This is a graphic novel written by Guy Delisle who was a househusband – his wife was working for Médecins Sans Frontiers in Burma. He has a wonderful eye for small but illuminating details.

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In an interview on Burma

Interview Extract:

Your final book is Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle.

This is a graphic novel written by Guy Delisle who was a househusband – his wife was working for Médecins Sans Frontiers in Burma. He went to live there with her and this book is all about his observations of everyday life. It has an ex-pat kind of bent to it and focuses mainly on life in Rangoon. He has lovely details in there about the mundane happenings of Rangoon life. For example, he talks about electricity and how you can suddenly be plunged into darkness when you least expect it and how that affects your day-to-day life and your evenings with your friends. He explores the lack of modern-day amenities and how this leads to a rather old-fashioned life-style. 

One of my favourite sections is when he describes drawing pictures of the ruling generals from the state newspaper and notices that the pockets of the general’s uniforms were especially elongated to account for all the medals that they had to wear. He has a wonderful eye for small but illuminating details.

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About Emma Larkin

Emma Larkin is the pseudonym for an American writer who was born and raised in Asia and studied the Burmese language at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She currently lives in Bangkok and has been visiting Burma for 15 years. Her latest book, Everything is Broken, gives voices to all the stories people wanted to tell after Cyclone Nargis two years ago.