In "The River of Lost Footsteps", Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, in part through a telling of his own family's history, in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and appalling. His maternal grandfather, U Thant, rose from being the schoolmaster of a small town in the Irrawaddy Delta to become the UN secretary-general in the 1960s. And on his father's side, the author is descended from a long line of courtiers who served at Burma's Court of Ava for nearly two centuries. Through their stories and others, he portrays Burma's rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through the decades of British colonialism, the devastation of World War II, and a sixty-year civil war that continues today and is the longest-running war anywhere in the world.
- ISBN10 0374531161
- ISBN13 9780374531164
- Publish Date 8 January 2008 (first published 12 December 2006)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 400
- Language English