The Long Path to Wisdom: Tales from Burma - Softcover

Sendker, Jan-Philipp; Karnath, Lorie; Sendker, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590519647 ISBN 13: 9781590519646

Publisher: Other Press, 2018

Synopsis

From the author of the internationally bestselling The Art of Hearing Heartbeats series, comes this charming collection of folktales that offers a window into Burma's fascinating history and culture.

Since 1995 Jan-Philipp Sendker has visited Myanmar (Burma) dozens of times, and while doing research for his novels The Art of Hearing Heartbeats and A Well-Tempered Heart, he encountered numerous folktales and fables. These moving stories speak to the rich mythology of the diverse peoples of Burma, the spirituality of humankind, and the profound social impact of Buddhist thought. Some are so strange he couldn't classify them or identify a familiar moral, while others reminded him of the fairy tales of his childhood, except that here monkeys, tigers, elephants, and crocodiles inhabited the fantastic lands instead of hedgehogs, donkeys, or geese. Their morals resemble those of the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen, illustrating how all cultures draw on a universal wisdom to create their myths.
This publication began when Lorie Karnath approached German novelist Jan Philipp Sendker about her idea of recording some of the stories she had collected over the past two decades from her travels to Myanmar.Sendker had also spent time in this mystical country and had written two novels based in the country. Liking the idea, the pair then set aboutwriting the The Long Path to Wisdom, Sendker's son Jonathan who hadrecently spent some time to Burma also contributed a number of the tales to the publication. The result is a book of Burmese stories and legends some of which may have never been recorded in English. The storieswhich to some may seem similar in spirit to Western styled fairy tales,are different in that they served a different role, in many casesrepresent pieces of the oral history of the different tribal groups that make up the country. The stories are intertwined with references to the natural as well as the supernatural world. They have been passed downthrough the generations some to help explain the laws of natural worldand its phenomenon as well as to help with the wide-array of moralchoices that each individual must face along their chosen path. Thestories are filled with superstition and speak about love and loss, ofsuffering and happiness, revenge, and justice, oftentimes humorously.Each conveys a circumstance and lesson, some easily apparent whileothers require more consideration to recognize the wisdom that theseimpart.
The Long Path to Wisdom's evocative stories run the gamut of human emotions, from the familiar to the shocking, and are sure to delight fans of The Art of Hearing Heartbeats as well as those newly discovering the magic of Sendker's incandescent writing.

About this title

About the Author

Jan-Philipp Sendker is an internationally bestselling author born in Hamburg in 1960. He was the American correspondent for Stern from 1990 to 1995, and its Asian correspondent from 1995 to 1999. In 2000 he published Cracks in the Wall, a nonfiction book about China. His first novel, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats (Other Press), was published in 2012, and the sequel, A Well-Tempered Heart (Other Press), appeared in 2014. His third novel in the trilogy is set to be published in 2019. He lives in Berlin with his family. Lorie Karnath, is an explorer and internationally acclaimed author. She was the former president of The Explorers Club and has written a number of books including Architecture in Burma; Moments in Time, (Hatje Cantz).  

Review

“Enchanting...Young and old alike will enjoy traveling through the forests, farms, kingdoms and villages of Burma. The rich landscape is as captivating as the mystical nats (or spirits) that inhabit the pages of this book. Simple writing with complex meaning and rich culture, The Long Path to Wisdom is a great addition to any fairytale collection.” —Shelf Awareness

“Delicately balanced between cultural ethnography and poetic vision, Sendker’s collection of folk tales, legends and parables takes us on a journey to a lost paradise of the imagination and to a world of real lives whose substance and existence is but a twilight glimmer of all that it was.” —Bookanista

Praise for The Art of Hearing Heartbeats:
 
“A lush tale of romance and family set in mid-twentieth-century Burma...beautiful...bound to enchant readers.” —Booklist
 
“Magical...It’s stories like The Art of Hearing Heartbeats that show how our very existence is important...What a gift that is.” —Huffington Post
 
“Brilliant...Sendker’s novel proves to be a love story of the most masterful variety...Coupled with an unusual glimpse into the Burma of the 1950s and today, readers will delight in the emotional power of Sendker’s storytelling.” —Shelf Awareness for Readers
 
“A love story set in Burma...imbued with Eastern spirituality and fairy-tale romanticism.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“Sweetly tragic.” —Library Journal
 
“No matter what I even attempt to say, I can’t possibly capture the absolute magic of this book. Like a spell, it haunts. Like love, it’s going to endure.” —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You

About this edition

• Publisher: Other Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1590519647
• ISBN 13: 9781590519646
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368