True Love and Bartholomew: Rebels on the Burmese Border

Jonathan Falla, a nurse and prizewinning playwright, spent an illegal year living with the Karen rebels. His richly illustrated account of life in the Burmese jungle creates an evocative portrait of a people fighting to preserve their way of life. The Karen, one of Burma’s many minority peoples, have been waging an increasingly desperate war for autonomy against the Burmese government since 1949. Burma’s ‘closed door’ policies have prevented any close study of Karen society since the 1920s and more recent writers have been forced to concentrate on Karen refugee communities in Thailand. Discussing all aspects of Karen life, this is no ordinary anthropological study but a highly personalized account. Based on the lives of individual Karen there are chapters on music, food, love, the patterns of forest and river life, on women, language, weaponry and mercenaries, and on the symbols of rebel nationalism.