Emma Larkin, author of Everything is Broken, on tour June 2010
Posted By admin on April 15, 2010
About Everything is Broken
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: The Penguin Press HC
On May 2, 2008, an enormous tropical cyclone made landfall in Burma, wreaking untold havoc, and leaving an official toll of 138,300 dead and missing. In the days that followed, the sheer scale of the disaster became apparent as information began to seep out from the hard-hit delta area. But the Burmese regime, in an unfathomable decision of near-genocidal proportions, provided little relief and blocked international aid from entering the country. Hundreds of thousands of Burmese citizens lacked food, drinking water, and basic shelter, but the xenophobic generals who rule the country refused emergency help.
Emma Larkin, who has been traveling to and secretly reporting on Burma for years, managed to arrange for a tourist visa in those frenzied days and arrived hoping to help. It was impossible for anyone to gauge just how much devastation the cyclone had left in its wake; by all accounts, including the regime’s, it was a catastrophe of epic proportions. In Everything is Broken: A Tale of Catastrophe in Burma (The Penguin Press; May 3, 2010; $35.95), Larkin chronicles the chaotic days and months that followed the storm, revealing the secretive politics of Burma’s military dictatorship, and the bizarre combination of vicious military force, religion, and mysticism that defined its unthinkable response to this horrific event.
The Burmese regime hid the full extent of the storm’s devastation from the rest of the world, but the terrible consequences for Burma and its citizens continued to play out many months after the headlines had faded from newspapers around the world. In Everything is Broken, Larkin—whose deep knowledge of the Burmese people has afforded her unprecedented access and a rare understanding of life under Burmese oppression—provides a singular portrait of the regime responsible for compounding the tragedy, and examines the historical, religious, and superstitious setting that created Burma’s tenacious and brutal dictatorship. Writing under an assumed name, Larkin delivers the heretofore untold story of a disaster that stunned the world, unveiling as she does so the motivations of the impenetrable generals who govern this troubled nation.
About Emma
Emma Larkin is the pseudonym for an American who was born and raised in Asia, studied the Burmese language at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She lives in Bangkok, Thailand, and has been visiting Burma for close to fifteen years. Her previous book, Finding George Orwell in Burma, was published by The Penguin Press in 2005.
Emma Larkin TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Tuesday, May 18th: Word Lily
Wednesday, May 19th: Beastmomma
Wednesday, May 26th: The Little Reader
Thursday, May 27th: Heart 2 Heart
Monday, May 31st: Café of Dreams
Wednesday, June 2th: Books, Movies, and Chinese Food
Thursday, June 3rd: Book Addiction
Tuesday, June 8th: Lit and Life
Wednesday, June 9th: Caribousmom
Thursday, June 10th: Sophisticated Dorkiness
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[...] is Broken by Emma Larkin arrived from Penguin Press thanks to TLC Book Tours. I will be touring this book on June 9th, so be sure to come back then to read my review. This is [...]
[...] in Burma Author: Emma Larkin Genre: Literary Journalism Year: 2010 Acquired: For review for TLC Book Tours [...]