The Long Path to Wisdom

Sat, Oct 27, 2018

Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of going to New York with my good friend Lisa Liesener to celebrate the release of a book that we translated together from German: The Long Path to Wisdom. The original text is also a collaboration; Jan‑Philipp Sendker teamed up with Lorie Karnath and with his son Jonathan Sendker to collect and present a wide-ranging variety of Burmese folk tales. Jan‑Philipp is also the author of two novels (so far) set in Burma: The Art of Hearing Heartbeats and A Well-Tempered Heart, both of which I also translated for him. In an introduction and epilogue to The Long Path to Wisdom he reflects on his experiences visiting Burma dozens of times over more than twenty years.

Lisa and I had a delightful lunch with Jan-Philipp and Jonathan. From there we went to a reception at the Other Press offices which was followed by a question-and-answer event with the authors at the Explorer’s Club.