Quotes
“Author Charmaine Craig provides a tender imagined account of her own family in twentieth-century Southeast Asia. An author’s narration can be a treat because she can bring her words to life in a way that no one else can. In every scene, Craig is captivating as she recounts her grandmother’s quiet strength, her grandfather’s desperate drive, and her mother’s precociousness.” AudioFile
“Masterfully renders the human condition in matters micro and vast…[including] the globally perpetuated unfair treatment of women.” Elle
“Craig ably controls the novel’s historic sweep…She also conveys a strong sense of family.” New Yorker
“A timely exposition of trust after trauma… [and] a much-needed recalibration of history…Craig produces some passages of exquisitely precise description…and brings one of Burma’s many lost histories to vivid life.” New York Times
“Charts both a political history and a deeply personal one…[and] those incendiary moments when private and public motivations overlap.” Los Angeles Times
"[A novel] forcing us to consider the intersection of the personal and political and the extent to which individuals are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.” New York Journal of Books
“Powerful and vivid prose…epic and intimate…a compelling and disturbing trip through Burmese history and politics.” Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author
“Challenges our assumptions about everything from beauty queens to rebels and reminds us that the course of a nation’s history is often determined by the fallibility of individuals.” Booklist (starred review)
“Rich and layered, a complex weaving of national and personal trauma. …Mesmerizing and haunting.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A rich, complex account of Burma and its place within the larger geopolitical theater.” Publishers Weekly