In 2016, while working as a journalist in Yangon, Clare Hammond discovered an obscure map that showed a web of new railways spanning the length and breadth of the country - railways not shown on any other publicly available maps. She was determined to uncover the railways' origins, purpose. She would spend 3 months travelling on these mysterious railways, and the next 5 years piecing their story together. Her journey would take her from Myanmar's tropical south to the embattled mountain towns that border India and China. Clare encountered a colourful and contradictory Myanmar through the stories of its people. Simultaneously a lush and evocative travelogue, an unsparing account of Myanmar's recent history, and an astonishing, conversation-shifting engagement with Britain's colonial legacy, this is that rare and necessary thing: a book that finds and tells the truth.