A World Overturned: A Burmese Childhood, 1933-1947

by Maureen Baird-Murray

An entrancing autobiography of a childhood spent in Burma, by the daughter of an Irish colonial administrator and his Burmese wife. During her childhood, the author was shuttled between the idyll of her peasant grandparents' bamboo house and the fierce discipline of Italian nuns at a convent school, until the Japanese army arrived and life changed forever. No index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Genres: Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Mona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a heartbreaking, beautifully written memoir that is a can't-put-it-down compelling story of a child of a Burmese mother and Irish father left in the care of an Italian convent in the British hill station of Kalaw at age four. Descriptions of convent life and how she's treated by the nuns, some strict to the extreme and others joyously kind, are difficult reading. How she kept her spirits up despite severe teasing by non-Burmese classmates and unbelievable punishment by some of the nuns is amazing. Eventually her mother arrived and took her for visits to her family village. She loved life there but was always returned to St. Agnes Convent where she lived in fear wondering why she was kept in the dark about what was happening to her. Her father did appear several times for brief outings, but nothing was ever explained. Colorful descriptions of convent life before and during the Japanese occupation from her childish perspective show her resilience amid eternal hope for reuniting with her parents. The shock she feels upon learning this will never happen is an extremely poignant part of the story. Eventually, at age 13, the day comes when she is to leave the convent and her friends for the unknown in Ireland. A few questions are answered but it takes a reunion many decades later in Burma to add details to what did happen. The story goes full circle but I was left in tears over the depth of feelings expressed by the author. I also wished to learn more of her life as she grew up in Ireland. But...this is a story about Burma and childhood. It's unforgettable.

[H. P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A World Overturned, as the title suggests, tells the story of the author’s childhood in Burma, including during the Japanese occupation of Burma during WWII. If it is an ordinary story, it’s an ordinary story about an extraordinary time. It is simply and smoothly told. It is just a narrow window into a particular time in Burmese history, but the British colonial history and the Japanese occupation are key, I think, to understanding modern Burma. A World Overturned is also much more accessible to a neophyte than a more ambitious book like The River of Lost Footsteps.

[H. P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A World Overturned, as the title suggests, tells the story of the author’s childhood in Burma, including during the Japanese occupation of Burma during WWII. If it is an ordinary story, it’s an ordinary story about an extraordinary time. It is simply and smoothly told. It is just a narrow window into a particular time in Burmese history, but the British colonial history and the Japanese occupation are key, I think, to understanding modern Burma. A World Overturned is also much more accessible to a neophyte than a more ambitious book like The River of Lost Footsteps.

[Ian Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting personal account of life in the Shan frontier region of Burma. The author was the daughter of an Anglo-Irish Burma Frontier Service officer and his Burmese wife, put into an Italian convent at a young age and finally leaving to Ireland after the Japanese occupation. Written from an unusual viewpoint, and well written.