The People Elsewhere

The People Elsewhere is a vigorous and compelling travel parable. More importantly, it’s the story we’ve been waiting to read about Myanmar, a country with a highly-wrought and complex ethnic history with perhaps over a hundred ethnicities existing beyond the state-driven narrative of ‘Burmese’.

James Byrne co-editor of, Bones Will Crow: 15 Contemporary Burmese Poets

Lucas Stewart’s book is an exquisite map of the many literatures of Myanmar, of the human impulse to express oneself through story and song, and of the courageous bards and storytellers who kept literature alive against the odds. In scenes alternately warming and harrowing, it braids travel, history and literary criticism in a most ingenious way to give us an unforgettable portrait of a country long forgotten by the world.

Chandrahas Choudhury author of, Clouds and editor of India: A Traveller's Literary Companion

Lucas Stewart’s journey across Myanmar offers a fascinating insight and a rare glimpse of life through its storytellers. He captures how the writers he meets struggled to keep alive their past and rich patchwork of languages and traditions through their love of literature. Anyone, wanting to discover Myanmar’s rich cultural heritage and how these endearing, diverse and remarkable peoples did more than just survive, will find this an important and essential read.

Nick Danziger photojournalist and author of, Danziger's Adventures