Wendy Law-Yone was 15 at the time of Burma's military coup in 1962. The
daughter of Ed Law-Yone, daredevil proprietor of Rangoon Nation,
Burma's leading postwar English-language daily, she experienced
firsthand the perils and promises of a newly independent Burma.
On the eve of Wendy's studies abroad, Ed Law-Yone was arrested, his
newspaper shut down, and Wendy herself was briefly imprisoned. After his
release, Ed fled to Thailand with his family, where he formed a
government-in-exile and tried, unsuccessfully, to foment a revolution.
Emigrating to America with his wife and children, Ed never gave up hope
that Burma would adopt a new democratic government. While he died
disappointed, he left in his daughter's care an illuminating trove of
papers documenting the experiences of an eccentric, ambitious, humorous,
and determined patriot, vividly recounting the realities of colonial
rule, Japanese occupation, postwar reconstruction, and military
dictatorship. This book tells the twin histories of Law-Yone's kin and
country, a nation whose vicissitudes continue to intrigue the world.