Guy Delisle was born in Quebec City, Canada. His bestselling and acclaimed travelogues (
Pyongyang, Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, Burma Chronicles, and
Shenzhen) are defining works of graphic nonfiction, and in 2012, Delisle was awarded the top prize in European cartooning when the French edition of
Jerusalem was named Best Album at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. He lives in France with his wife and children.
Guy Delisle's newest travelogue revolves around a year spent in Burma (also known as Myanmar) with his wife and son. Burma is notorious for its use of concealment and isolation as social control: where scissor-wielding censors monitor the papers, the de facto leader of the opposition has been under decade-long house arrest, insurgent-controlled regions are effectively cut off from the world, and rumour is the most reliable source of current information.
An impressive and moving work of comics journalism from the author of Pyongyang and Shenzen.
It’s insightful and is able to carry the weight of Burma’s troublesome history, enabling the reader to learn about the real lives of Burmese people, through a mix of current affairs and, surprisingly considering the subject, humour.Simply put,
Burma Chronicles is the most enlightening and insightful book on Burma in years... If you must visit Burma while it remains under the rule of the iniquitous junta, do so with the express intention of bearing witness to the tragedy and suffering of its people. Better still, stay away, and visit it instead through the pages of this heartbreaking, educational and insightful comic masterpieceAs a counterpoint to the often inaccessible news stories about the country, this is an excellent portrait of a little-understood land, and makes for a deeply original and fascinating piece of travel writingHilarious and touchingThis book is more fun than most holidays and more enlightening than a hundred blogs by self-appointed experience censors
