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On the Shadow Tracks: A Journey through Occupied Myanmar
'On the Shadow Tracks harnesses the railway lines of Myanmar’s complicated past to its turbulent present, and the result is part travelogue, part history and completely absorbing. An astonishing achievement’
Joanna Lumley
In 2016, while working as a journalist in Yangon, Clare Hammond discovered an obscure map that showed a web of new railways spanning the length and breadth of the country - railways not shown on any other publicly available maps. She was determined to uncover the railways' origins, purpose, and most of all, the silence that surrounded them. She would spend three months travelling on these mysterious railways, and the next five years piecing their story together.
Her journey would take her from Myanmar's tropical south to the embattled mountain towns that border India and China. In dilapidated carriages, along tracks in disrepair, through contested ethnic states and former sites of forced labour, visiting temples, tea shops and festivals, Clare encountered a colourful and contradictory Myanmar through the stories of its people. Simultaneously a lush and evocative travelogue, an unsparing account of Myanmar's recent history, and an astonishing, conversation-shifting engagement with Britain's colonial legacy, On the Shadow Tracks is that rare and necessary a book that finds and tells the truth.
Joanna Lumley
In 2016, while working as a journalist in Yangon, Clare Hammond discovered an obscure map that showed a web of new railways spanning the length and breadth of the country - railways not shown on any other publicly available maps. She was determined to uncover the railways' origins, purpose, and most of all, the silence that surrounded them. She would spend three months travelling on these mysterious railways, and the next five years piecing their story together.
Her journey would take her from Myanmar's tropical south to the embattled mountain towns that border India and China. In dilapidated carriages, along tracks in disrepair, through contested ethnic states and former sites of forced labour, visiting temples, tea shops and festivals, Clare encountered a colourful and contradictory Myanmar through the stories of its people. Simultaneously a lush and evocative travelogue, an unsparing account of Myanmar's recent history, and an astonishing, conversation-shifting engagement with Britain's colonial legacy, On the Shadow Tracks is that rare and necessary a book that finds and tells the truth.
- GenresTravelNonfictionHistory
381 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 6, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 21, 2024
Today, I happened to read the article Back to ‘Normal’: Rethinking State–Society Relations in Myanmar by Htet Hlaing Win, which I find relevant to this book. In the article, Htet Hlaing Win argues that successive Myanmar governments, influenced by pre-modern Burmese rulers, have historically prioritised the protection and promotion of Buddhism over addressing the needs of the people, even during U Nu’s government between 1948 and 1962. This perspective echoes Clare Hammond’s exploration of Myanmar’s railways, which also reveals a pattern of state priorities skewed towards control rather than public service.
I find it puzzling why the trend of Myanmar’s governance tends to focus on religious and military objectives at the expense of public welfare. It goes against the principle of social contract as traditionally understood. Rather than “a government for the people”, Myanmar is best described as “a government at the expense of the people”. This pattern was momentarily disrupted during the quasi-democratic period from 2011 to 2021 when civilian concerns were briefly prioritised. However, the 2021 military coup marked a return to the "normal" state of affairs, where the government once again neglected public welfare in favour of religious and military pursuits.
Hammond’s journey, detailed in her exploration beginning in 2016, takes place during this transitional period under Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, when there was a nominally democratic government. During this time, she encountered Myanmar’s railways as largely dysfunctional and disconnected relics of a bygone era. Her difficulties were compounded by the fact that many areas in Myanmar were off-limits to foreigners, even during this transitional period. She began her journey from Dawei in the Tanintharyi Region, deep in southern Myanmar, all the way to the north where the Shan States border China, traversing territories that are controlled by various ethnic armed organisations ruling the peripheries of Myanmar where illicit economies are dominant and rule of law nonexistent.
Delving deeper, Hammond reveals that these railways were originally designed by British colonisers and later maintained by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military) not to serve the public but to project power into remote areas, facilitating resource extraction and military movements. This historical context mirrors the broader political landscape in Myanmar, where the state has consistently prioritised religious and military goals over the welfare of its citizens. For example, the military’s ongoing airstrikes on areas controlled by resistance forces, regardless of civilian conditions, result in high civilian casualties, reflecting a continued disregard for public welfare.
Hammond’s examination of Myanmar’s railways thus serves as a microcosm of broader state-society relations in the country. The railways, like the government’s approach to public health and welfare, have been used to assert control rather than to serve the people genuinely. This dynamic is starkly illustrated by the military junta’s neglect of public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to widespread suffering and death as local aid groups and civil society organisations stepped in to fill the void left by the state. When viewed alongside Htet Hlaing Win’s insights, Hammond’s work paints a comprehensive picture of a country where the state’s priorities have long been misaligned with the needs of its people, resulting in a persistent history of suffering, resistance, and survival.
I find it puzzling why the trend of Myanmar’s governance tends to focus on religious and military objectives at the expense of public welfare. It goes against the principle of social contract as traditionally understood. Rather than “a government for the people”, Myanmar is best described as “a government at the expense of the people”. This pattern was momentarily disrupted during the quasi-democratic period from 2011 to 2021 when civilian concerns were briefly prioritised. However, the 2021 military coup marked a return to the "normal" state of affairs, where the government once again neglected public welfare in favour of religious and military pursuits.
Hammond’s journey, detailed in her exploration beginning in 2016, takes place during this transitional period under Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, when there was a nominally democratic government. During this time, she encountered Myanmar’s railways as largely dysfunctional and disconnected relics of a bygone era. Her difficulties were compounded by the fact that many areas in Myanmar were off-limits to foreigners, even during this transitional period. She began her journey from Dawei in the Tanintharyi Region, deep in southern Myanmar, all the way to the north where the Shan States border China, traversing territories that are controlled by various ethnic armed organisations ruling the peripheries of Myanmar where illicit economies are dominant and rule of law nonexistent.
Delving deeper, Hammond reveals that these railways were originally designed by British colonisers and later maintained by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military) not to serve the public but to project power into remote areas, facilitating resource extraction and military movements. This historical context mirrors the broader political landscape in Myanmar, where the state has consistently prioritised religious and military goals over the welfare of its citizens. For example, the military’s ongoing airstrikes on areas controlled by resistance forces, regardless of civilian conditions, result in high civilian casualties, reflecting a continued disregard for public welfare.
Hammond’s examination of Myanmar’s railways thus serves as a microcosm of broader state-society relations in the country. The railways, like the government’s approach to public health and welfare, have been used to assert control rather than to serve the people genuinely. This dynamic is starkly illustrated by the military junta’s neglect of public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to widespread suffering and death as local aid groups and civil society organisations stepped in to fill the void left by the state. When viewed alongside Htet Hlaing Win’s insights, Hammond’s work paints a comprehensive picture of a country where the state’s priorities have long been misaligned with the needs of its people, resulting in a persistent history of suffering, resistance, and survival.
May 29, 2025
I never would have thought that an examination of Myanmar's railway system would produce the most unique look at an isolated & devastated country that I've read in some time. But Clare Hammond manages to pack in a great deal of history and empathy into this look at the price paid by people for decades of colonialism and military rule. Incredibly sad reading.
January 12, 2025
An excellent read that manages to leverage very niche reportage - new railway lines built by Myanmar’s military junta - to narrate a broader exploration of the political, social, economic, and environmental challenges facing the country. Hammond has both travelled fearlessly and written empathetically, and delivered a book that genuinely makes you want to learn more about the places and people it visits. Some readers might benefit from additional context, though, so I would recommend casual googling on Myanmar to make better sense of the lay of the book.
June 27, 2024
This book is an absolutely incredible read. I am not one for educational nonfiction books and find most stats and facts very hard to retain, but this is written as a travelogue—weaving personal travel stories around hard-hitting data—and the result is a story I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
The most astonishing thing is the depth and bravery of the research that went into this. Clare travelled alone across 3000 miles of abandoned or contested railway, in areas of Myanmar where she was neither welcome nor safe, to collect the true accounts of those involved with and impacted by Myanmar’s hidden railway network. The way she recounts her experiences, her interactions with the people she met and the barriers she met along the way is both emotional and rational but without being judgemental, and her writing is beautiful.
I recommend everyone to read this book, but especially those of you who want to understand today’s conflict in Myanmar from a historical or human perspective. And I dare you not to lose yourself in the story as a train loses itself in a tunnel.
The most astonishing thing is the depth and bravery of the research that went into this. Clare travelled alone across 3000 miles of abandoned or contested railway, in areas of Myanmar where she was neither welcome nor safe, to collect the true accounts of those involved with and impacted by Myanmar’s hidden railway network. The way she recounts her experiences, her interactions with the people she met and the barriers she met along the way is both emotional and rational but without being judgemental, and her writing is beautiful.
I recommend everyone to read this book, but especially those of you who want to understand today’s conflict in Myanmar from a historical or human perspective. And I dare you not to lose yourself in the story as a train loses itself in a tunnel.
June 4, 2024
A powerful but readable story of a journalist who sets off around Myanmar on its old train tracks. She discovers a complex, diverse country with unique histories, cultures and problems around every corner.
While the book dwells on some of the worst British colonial and subsequent military excesses, the good humor of the author’s subjects shine through. Most people are aware of the tragedy of their surroundings in Myanmar, and Hammond takes care to illuminate thoughtful portrayals of all people, great or small.
Highly recommend this book. I read it over a long weekend and could barely put it down. The author has certainly ‘walked the walk’ through her long affiliation with Myanmar and this book should be read widely.
While the book dwells on some of the worst British colonial and subsequent military excesses, the good humor of the author’s subjects shine through. Most people are aware of the tragedy of their surroundings in Myanmar, and Hammond takes care to illuminate thoughtful portrayals of all people, great or small.
Highly recommend this book. I read it over a long weekend and could barely put it down. The author has certainly ‘walked the walk’ through her long affiliation with Myanmar and this book should be read widely.
August 28, 2024
I loved this book a lot more than even the four stars suggest. It is more like a solid 4.5, and the only reason its not 5, is because I felt like it lost its stride by the last two chapters. The writing is equal parts evocative and analytical, elegantly weaving together an engaging travelogue, a well-researched history of a Myanmar then and now, an impassioned account of widespread violence and a plea for accountability, and most importantly a beautiful testament to the resilience of the people of Myanmar. Despite being dense in information, it is a engrossing read and once you are hooked, the book is difficult to put down. I have connected to it in many ways, having travelled on some of those trains myself and having spent the past years of my life working on and being enraged by the many violations committed by the military. At the same time, the book is accessible to anyone without much prior knowledge of the country, and I honestly cant wait to recommend it to many of my friends asking questions and trying to understand why I am doing what I am doing.
November 30, 2024
I came away thinking, huh, it seems Clare is blind to her place as a white/British person in a former British colony. She often talks about colonial-era buildings with glowing adjectives and uses diction that often othered the people she engaged with (particularly in the Rakhine/Rohingya chapter, and she consistently uses the phrase “gang of children” throughout the book). Though she did go into British colonization history a bit, it was always second to the history of the Junta. In part, she features the Junta history more prominently because it’s more immediately relevant to the oral histories she is gathering. Still, there is limited critique of the British atrocities that sparked so much of the Junta mess.
THAT SAID this is not a book about British colonization of Myanmar, it’s a book about Myanmar’s railways. As a book about Myanmar’s railways, it’s about as nuanced and well researched as it could feasibly get.
Despite some of its shortcomings, four stars for journalism into conflicts no one in the West talks about.
THAT SAID this is not a book about British colonization of Myanmar, it’s a book about Myanmar’s railways. As a book about Myanmar’s railways, it’s about as nuanced and well researched as it could feasibly get.
Despite some of its shortcomings, four stars for journalism into conflicts no one in the West talks about.
June 6, 2024
Having travelled through Myanmar, sometimes by train in the time that this was written, I thought this was a very good book. It was written in a tiny window of opportunity when the future of Myanmar looked good and the people more relaxed and willing to talk. The writing is very accessible for a general reader, and it is genuinely interesting because it is essentially a book about people. The picture of life in Myanmar is vivid and heartbreaking. Clare Hammond is a tenacious and indefatigable author who gets so much out of her interviewees, but then transcribes it well, keeping it very readable. It is a long time since I have read a travel book with such depth. For me this is an important book, which I hope wins some prizes.
July 18, 2024
"When I set out to travel into the Ayeyarwady Delta by train, I expected the journey to take a long time. I imagined trains might be late, that I might miss a connecting service, that there would be long delays between stations. But all these imagined scenarios were just versions of the type of difficulties that I'd encountered in the past while traveling on other railways in other parts of the world. Nothing I'd ever experienced had prepared me for what lay ahead. More than anything I've done in Myanmar before or since, the journey into the Delta by train revealed the chasm between the fictional world the Generals were trying to create through their propaganda and the reality of life under their rule."
August 8, 2024
Weaves together Colonial history, recent history and politics and economics (and travel) to paint a picture of rail building in Myanmar as a way of giving gifts to cronies, forced subjugation of non-Bamar people, resource extraction, military domination,...
When I visited Myanmar 10+ years ago during the (sadly) brief thaw in the nation's history I took many trains. Some of them (train to Lashio, for example) are familiar to me. And the author's description of the realities of riding the rails (bumpy carriages, upper and lower class coaches, plain clothes milirary people who become your "guardians") is vivid.
My one issue with the book is that I thought it would have a central thesis. It did not. At least I didn't pick up one.
When I visited Myanmar 10+ years ago during the (sadly) brief thaw in the nation's history I took many trains. Some of them (train to Lashio, for example) are familiar to me. And the author's description of the realities of riding the rails (bumpy carriages, upper and lower class coaches, plain clothes milirary people who become your "guardians") is vivid.
My one issue with the book is that I thought it would have a central thesis. It did not. At least I didn't pick up one.
December 31, 2024
This is a stunning book. If you open it knowing as little about Myanmar as I did, you'll be faced with a map of completely unfamiliar places - but by the end you will feel much closer, not just to the cities and the landscape of Myanmar, but also to its ethnically diverse people. Hammond is a deeply knowledgeable and sympathetic guide, a constant source of historical context and revelatory insight. It eventually becomes clear that the book's goal is to present you with a new image of the country: "not a unified Myanmar controlled by the generals, but a complex and diverse landscape of people who constantly undermined them". The book achieves this aim spectacularly and often movingly, upending the way I think about this troubled part of the world.
February 14, 2025
I really wish I could have had more time to read this because I think reading it slowly affected my understanding to an extent, but I still really enjoyed it. Prior to reading the only things I really knew about Myanmar were things I learned in Global 10 about the Rohingya Genocide and other human rights abuses, so it was extremely informative to learn more about British colonial occupation, the military junta, and the lives of ordinary people through the dilapidated railway system. As the author is a journalist, the language was very accessible and filled with vivid descriptions, which was a nice break from the many historians and political scientists whose work I have to read this semester.
February 19, 2025
The book was a wonderful deep dive into the history and state of Myanmar. There was so much I didn't know that I didn't even realize I didn't know. I think the best lesson I've gained from the book is how the human spirit persists, even with the odds stacked against thee. The author herself displays bravery and courage and the willingness to dig for the truth. She acknowledges her own privilege which thus forces us the reader to reflect on our privileges as well. It's easy to imagine myself as a person raised in Myanmar and to see their struggle as one that any person could be in. It's an excellent book, Claire does a stellar job of making a dense historical and journalistic piece more comprehensible. 3.5 stars.
August 10, 2024
Because of the very nature of the topic, it can be repetitive: the author goes to a state of Burma, talks to her fixers and locals, is followed by government informants, and discovers shocking human rights abuses.
But within this framework, Hammond managed to mine diverse issues: land rights in one area, racial tensions in another, the limits of state power in another, corvee labor throughout the country. She interviews two government ministers responsible for them, and picks up a lot of small nuances about the country (e.g. taboo around asking how long a journey would last). I would have liked a little bit more of history (considering the extensive bibliography she had) but the book is a journalistic reportage at its best.
But within this framework, Hammond managed to mine diverse issues: land rights in one area, racial tensions in another, the limits of state power in another, corvee labor throughout the country. She interviews two government ministers responsible for them, and picks up a lot of small nuances about the country (e.g. taboo around asking how long a journey would last). I would have liked a little bit more of history (considering the extensive bibliography she had) but the book is a journalistic reportage at its best.
November 20, 2024
The author traces the divided loyalties and conflicts in the country by means of her travel through Myanmar near and sometimes on its dilapidated railways. I felt put off by the idea at first but it turned out to be fascinating and I did enjoy the book. You don't need to be an expert on gauge or know anything about trains to see what they represent in this book - for some, endless broken promises and for others, a vision of the future. Her writing had a gentle touch as she describes the people who she met along the way but she doesn't shy away from the harsh realities of people's lives in Myanmar.
February 16, 2025
I like trains, I like history, I like travelogues and I like learning more about repressive regimes, so this book was perfect for me.
If you'd ask me about my knowledge of Myanmarese railways prior to reading this book, I'd have probably made an educated guess that they had their foundations in colonial the colonial era but had been expanded and used by the junta in more recent years. So it opened my eyes to a world I knew little about. No real surprises but good to learn more.
4*s as I found the author's sentence structure and prose annoying.
If you'd ask me about my knowledge of Myanmarese railways prior to reading this book, I'd have probably made an educated guess that they had their foundations in colonial the colonial era but had been expanded and used by the junta in more recent years. So it opened my eyes to a world I knew little about. No real surprises but good to learn more.
4*s as I found the author's sentence structure and prose annoying.
June 17, 2025
I bought this on a whim on a visit to Stanfords (travel) bookshop in London. This was a surprising and welcome purchase. I know Myanmar reasonably well so I wasn’t expecting to learn a great deal new but this immaculately and bravely researched book served up lots of new information. Railways, the backbone of British colonialism were adapted and built upon by Myanmar’s brutal army with new lines built by forced labour to supply the army as it fought the ethic armed organisations. Clare Hammond writes sparingly and passionately and sheds new light on the continued tragedy in the country.
April 9, 2025
Ένα υπέροχο και μαύρο οδοιπορικό σε μία από τις πιο fucked up χώρες του κόσμου - που πρόσφατα χτυπήθηκε από μεγάλο σεισμό. Όλη η ιστορία της Μιανμάρ μέσα από ένα ταξίδι με τρένο σε κάθε γωνιά της. Μια χώρα καταραμένη και μαζί μαγική και μια μαύρη ιστορία που χάνεται γιατί η ιστορία γράφεται από τους νικητές. Must read.
November 17, 2025
A riveting and revealing exploration of the Burmese Junta's national railway. Seeking to unify the border states with central Myanmar through a railway network, they further alienated indiginous populations by razing their villages and forcing local populations to work, unpaid, on building the tracks.
July 17, 2024
An exceptionally good book!
February 15, 2025
DNF. Interesting but I couldn’t get into it.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews