Miss Burma: A Novel

Miss Burma tells the story of modern-day Burma through the lives of Benny and Khin, a husband and wife, and their daughter Louisa. After attending school in Calcutta, Benny settles in Rangoon during the British Empire and falls in love with Khin, a woman from the Karen ethnic minority group. When World War II reaches Southeast Asia, the couple goes into hiding in the eastern part of the country during the Japanese occupation, an experience that shapes their family's future and impacts Burma's history. Years later, their eldest child Louisa becomes Burma's first beauty queen during her childhood marked by danger and turbulence. As she gains prominence, Louisa must confront her family's past, Western covert involvement in her country, and her own commitment to the Karen people's cause. Based on the author's mother and grandparents, the novel explores how modern Burma emerged and follows ordinary people caught in the struggle for self-determination and freedom.