Beautifully written story of an important (and largely unknown in the west) figure in Burmese history. Charmaine Craig captures her grandparents' and mother's stories with all vulnerabilities and strengths. She never shies away from the difficult topics or tries to cover their faults, but instead gives us a lovely, full story. This is the best sort of historical fiction - that which humanizes the story and leaves the reader running to the computer to learn more.

Following Benny, Khin and their daughter Louisa through this turbulent time in Burma's history was moving. The author wove the very human concerns and stuggles people are still faced with even in the face of great upheavel very well.

Well, I learned a lot about the history of Burma (now Myanmar) which was great because I knew basically nothing about it from my very Western-centric history education. Overall, I didn’t love this book, and I’m glad to be done with it if only so I can move onto a light and fluffy read.

The writing was beautiful, and I really enjoyed that, but I felt like the book as a whole was really....disjointed?? It starts off with a teenaged Louisa in 1956, taking part in a Miss Burma beauty pageant, and then pivots to the experience of her parents in the late 1920s and onward, only to end the book by shifting back to Louisa in her early 20s and a revolutionary (I think?).

Honestly I thought Louisa was a more compelling character, even as a child, than her parents, Khin (a member of an ethnic minority, the Karen) and Benny (Jewish Anglo-Indian?). So I would have loved the focus to be on Louisa as a whole, instead of flashing back and forth to Benny and Khin during the war (they both went through SOME SHIT and....wow).

I didn’t understand, and was confused by the complexities of Burma at this time and the context, so I think that definitely hampered my enjoyment of this book. As much as anyone could enjoy a super dark, graphic historical fiction about life in wartime.

I started on audio but couldn't really connect with the material in that format and hoped switching to print would help, unfortunately it didn't. The setting of place and time is fascinating--early to mid 20th century Burma--but I felt she tried to do too much here. We would fly right through scenes, and I felt like I struggled to know the characters.

interesting way to learn about Burma. i didn't at all find there was "too much history" (per a lot of the negative reviews) and thought what there was fit with the story well and added depth. really pretty sections of prose, some thought provoking ideas (even if they were sometimes presented as lectures / not quite believable dialogue)

Thank goodness for novels. This one is particularly good, and it taught me a TON about Burma/Myanmar.

Craig uses her mother's biography as the arc of this novel set in Burma and highlighting the struggles of the Karen people there.