Ju is a Burmese novelist, well known for her strong, intelligent female characters.
Despite her interest in writing, upon her mother's prodding, she pursued medical studies at the Institute of Medicine, Mandalay. She started writing while in medical school, and her first short story (ရာဇဝင်ထဲမှာမောင့်ကိုထားရစ်ခဲ့) was published in 1979. Her writing career took off in the late 1980s, with her debut novel, Remembrance (အမှတ်တရ), published in 1987.The bestseller novel stirred controversy for endorsing Western existentialist philosophy and portraying cohabiting unwed couples.
She has published fifteen novels (most of them were adapted into films), seven collections of short stories and seven collections of articles on the environment. She currently works as a co-founder of an HIV positive children orphanage and also a participant in the HIV/AIDS Media Initiative and Yadana Metta Foundation. Her writings now focus on environmental conservation.
I love the way it is written, how Mya's story come together with May Zaw's and the magnolia garden. I love how the ending is kind of open and let the reader make their own conclusions. The characters are typical Juu's characters with little or no character development except Khoon Thar, whom I like the best in the story line. This book is one of my favourites of the author.
2nd time rereading cuz the first time was when i was too young to grasp the deeper meaning of things. Not disappointing me, I still love it very much. As always, Juu delivers what she wanted with a bit of scientific facts and a load more of emotions.