The Long Path to Wisdom Tales from Burma [Paperback]

From the author of the internationally bestsellingThe Art of Hearing Heartbeatsseries, 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 novelsThe Art of Hearing HeartbeatsandA 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.

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 ofThe Art of Hearing Heartbeatsas well as those newly discovering the magic of Sendker's incandescent writing.“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 exlS!