Overview

From renowned author Paul Theroux comes a fascinating, atmospheric novel inspired by George Orwell's years in Burma 'There is a short period in everyone's life when his character is fixed forever . . . ' George Orwell Eric Blair stood out amongst his fellow police trainees in 1920s Burma. Nineteen years old, unusually tall, a diffident loner fresh from Eton, after five years spent in the narrow colonial world of the Raj - a decaying system steeped in overt racism and petty class-conflict - he would emerge as the George Orwell we know. Drawing on all his powers of observation and imagination, Paul Theroux brings Orwell's Burma years to radiant life, tracing the development of the young man's consciousness as he confronts the social, racial and class politics and the reality of Burma beyond. Through one writer, we come to understand another - and see how what Orwell called 'five boring years within the sound of bugles' were in fact the years that made him.

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Reviews

A remarkably vivid writer * Sunday Telegraph * Always a terrific teller of tales and conjurer of exotic locales, [Theroux] writes lean prose that lopes along at a compelling pace * Sunday Times *

Remarkable . . . Theroux, of course, has a parallel reputation as one of our greatest travel writers, and the Burma that he conjures in these pages is wonderfully present in lush and dense prose -- William Boyd * New York Times * [An] ambitious dramatization . . . With piercing prose, Theroux lays bare the fraudulent and fiercely despotic nature of the British Empire. This brims with intelligence and vigor * Publishers Weekly * A vibrantly descriptive narrative * Washington Post * Compelling. Theroux is always great with setting; here it’s not just Burma but the mind of Orwell that he persuasively inhabits * Kirkus * Theroux’s engrossing, suspenseful novel incisively maps the start of Blair’s metamorphosis into George Orwell, resounding critic of malevolent power * Booklist * Captivating . . . An engrossing story . . . Theroux, the accomplished travel writer, skillfully maps the lay of the land and transports his reader to one vividly depicted Burmese location after another . . . At the same time, Theroux, the adept novelist, ensures his reader is invested in his protagonist’s journey — both his professional arc and his emotional trajectory * Washington Examiner *

[An] ambitious dramatization . . . With piercing prose, Theroux lays bare the fraudulent and fiercely despotic nature of the British Empire. This brims with intelligence and vigor * Publishers Weekly * Compelling. Theroux is always great with setting; here it’s not just Burma but the mind of Orwell that he persuasively inhabits * Kirkus * Theroux’s engrossing, suspenseful novel incisively maps the start of Blair’s metamorphosis into George Orwell, resounding critic of malevolent power * Booklist *

Remarkable . . . Theroux, of course, has a parallel reputation as one of our greatest travel writers, and the Burma that he conjures in these pages is wonderfully present in lush and dense prose -- William Boyd * New York Times * Thoroughly engaging . . . Theroux is now in his eighties, and has written more than fifty books, but his writing is as potent as ever. A renowned travel writer, he recreates colonial Burma with loving accuracy, showing both its great beauty and the effects of its otherness on a homesick nineteen-year-old . . . meticulous and laudably authentic . . . [Theroux’s] approach is like that of a skilful, subtle barrister who patiently lays out his evidence, gradually ensnaring the reader in the apprehension of how this might all have appeared to be necessary and acceptable . . . Burma Sahib is a work of profound relevance to the present day for the way in which it demonstrates how human beings become enslaved to systems, institutions and social codes * Times Literary Supplement * [An] ambitious dramatization . . . With piercing prose, Theroux lays bare the fraudulent and fiercely despotic nature of the British Empire. This brims with intelligence and vigor * Publishers Weekly * A vibrantly descriptive narrative * Washington Post * Compelling. Theroux is always great with setting; here it’s not just Burma but the mind of Orwell that he persuasively inhabits * Kirkus * Theroux’s engrossing, suspenseful novel incisively maps the start of Blair’s metamorphosis into George Orwell, resounding critic of malevolent power * Booklist * Captivating . . . An engrossing story . . . Theroux, the accomplished travel writer, skillfully maps the lay of the land and transports his reader to one vividly depicted Burmese location after another . . . At the same time, Theroux, the adept novelist, ensures his reader is invested in his protagonist’s journey — both his professional arc and his emotional trajectory * Washington Examiner * Theroux gives us something that Orwell couldn’t: a sense of how current and relevant his concerns about imperialism remain from the viewpoint of the present . . . Theroux has woven a much bigger narrative around what we do know [about Orwell's time in Burma] and improvised imaginatively around the things we don’t * Financial Times * A thoughtful, fully rounded portrait of a young man coming of age in a baroque, baffling and completely fascinating place and time. At aged 82, Theroux is still a curious, thrawn, uncompromising traveller and writer. Young Eric Blair would have admired that * Sydney Morning Herald *

A remarkably vivid writer * Sunday Telegraph * There is very little that Paul Theroux cannot fit onto a page . . . His writing skills are disciplined and muscular, his ear as finely tuned as a musician’s, his eye sharper than any razor * Daily Mail * Always a terrific teller of tales and conjurer of exotic locales, [Theroux] writes lean prose that lopes along at a compelling pace * Sunday Times *

Author Information

Paul Theroux has written many works of fiction and travel writing, including the modern classics The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, My Secret History and The Mosquito Coast. He won the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing 2020. Paul Theroux divides his time between Cape Cod and the Hawaiian islands.

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