Saffron Shadows and Salvaged Scripts: Literary Life in Myanmar Under Censorship and in Transition. By Ellen Wiles. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. 288 pp. $50 cloth.

Saffron Shadows and Salvaged Scripts: Literary Life in Myanmar Under Censorship and in Transition. By Ellen Wiles. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. 288 pp. $50 cloth.Myanmar turns a historic corner this year: the National League for Democracy party, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, has just formed the majority of a new democratically elected parliament. The military government, which came to power in 1962, has been peacefully relinquishing control, albeit retaining a 25 percent presence in parliament which gives them the continued power of veto. A key indicator of change is the military's relaxation of its stranglehold on free speech, which supported half a century of repressive rule. At long last, Myanmar is on track to join the ranks of countries which protect freedom of expression. Saffron Shadows by Ellen Wiles is an important record of Burmese cultural production during this transition to democracy. Sociolegal scholars interested in censorship and the rule of law will welcome the rich interviews with contemporary writers that comprise the core of this book. They provide the first empirical study of the Burmese literary community since 2012 when the government stopped rigorously enforcing censorship laws. Each interview is paired with newly translated selections of the writer's work. The selected pieces are, on the whole, strong in their own right, so Saffron Shadows will appeal to readers interested in contemporary Asian poetry and literature as well.Wiles is a human rights lawyer; she conducted the ethnography while in Myanmar in 2013 training Burmese lawyers on the rule of law. Through this work, she explains, she encountered politically active poets and authors, who introduced her to the wider literary community. In all, 50 years of censorship profoundly impacted three generations of contemporary writers. Chapters Two, Three, and Four contain their selected writings, often alongside heartwrenching testimonies of spiritual resilience in the face of brutal persecution by the authorities. The sampling of selections offers readers a peek into the mind of the censor. These works were treated by the censors in one of three ways: there are those that were banned completely and only published after 2012; some were heavily censored, only then receiving the stamp of approval; while others were readily approved, with the junta even bestowing special honors on their authors. Unsurprisingly, censors banned outright or partially censored writing that overtly depicted challenges to the military's authority. For example, one of the translations in the book is a chapter excerpt from a novel describing a young man who is thrown in jail, simply for walking alongside protesting monks during the 2007 Saffron Revolution. When it was submitted to the censors, the whole novel was banned and the author's own publishing house was immediately shut down. The book was only published again after the lifting of the most repressive censorship laws in 2012. Off-limits topics also extended beyond politics. …