Emma Larkin

An overlooked patch of jungle behind a Bangkok city slum resonates with the hopes, dreams, and fears of the local community. Those who are drawn to the plot of land—including a homeless revolutionary, an ambitious property developer, and a lonely expat housewife—believe they can find opportunity or redemption there. But the slum-dwelling spirits who guard its secrets have other plans....

In this intrepid and brilliant memoir, Emma Larkin tells of the year she spent travelling through Burma, using as a compass the life and work of George Orwell, whom many of Burma's underground teahouse intellectuals call simply 'the prophet'. In stirring, insightful prose, she provides a powerful reckoning with one of the world's least free countries. Finding George Orwell in...