Novels
- The Lizard Cage (2005)
- The Change Room (2017)
Collections
Non fiction
- Touch the Dragon (1992)
- One Room in a Castle (1995)
- The Dream of a Thousand Lives (2001)
- Burmese Lessons (2009)
Novels Book Covers
Collections Book Covers
Non fiction Book Covers
Karen Connelly Books Overview
The Lizard Cage
Beautifully written and taking us into an exotic land, Karen Connelly’s debut novel The Lizard Cage is a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit. Teza once electrified the people of Burma with his protest songs against the dictatorship. Arrested by the Burmese secret police in the days of mass protest, he is seven years into a twenty year sentence in solitary confinement. Cut off from his family and contact with other prisoners, he applies his acute intelligence, Buddhist patience, and humor to find meaning in the interminable days, and searches for news in every being and object that is grudgingly allowed into his cell. Despite his isolation, Teza has a profound influence on the people around him. His very existence challenges the brutal authority of the jailers, and his steadfast spirit inspires radical change. Even when Teza s criminal server tries to compromise the singer for his own gain, Teza befriends him and risks falling into the trap of forbidden conversation, food, and the most dangerous contraband of all: paper and pen. Yet, it is through Teza s relationship with Little Brother, a twelve year old orphan who s grown up inside the walls, that we ultimately come to understand the importance of hope and human connection in the midst of injustice and violence. Teza and the boy are prisoners of different orders: only one of them dreams of escape and only one of them will achieve it their extraordinary friendship frees both of them in utterly surprising ways.
Touch the Dragon
New material including photos, maps and an afterword by Karen Connelly is included in this new format edition of her 1993 Governor General’s Award winning classic, Touch the Dragon: A Thai Journal. At the age of 17, the adventure seeking Calgary teenager went to Thailand on a Rotary exchange program and her life changed forever. Twenty four years later, Connelly is still travelling and writing, inspiring the world with her stories. Through vivid imagery, humour and careful observation of the families, school friends and Buddhist rituals around her, Connelly brings to life the small village in northern Thailand where she stayed for a year. Initially homesick and frustrated by the habits and lifestyle of the gentle but patriarchal Thais, Connelly begins to view herself as one of them by the end of her stay. The idea of returning to Canada becomes terrifying and strange because she has become so accustomed to her new community and the Thai way of life. Put together from her journals written at the time, Connelly s to the moment chronicling of her experience reveals a momentous growing experience in the heart and mind of a young woman.
The Dream of a Thousand Lives
Canadian poet Karen Connelly was a young woman when she left home to live for one year in Denchai, a small farming community in northern Thailand. This lyrical portrait of her true life adventures radiates wit and literary charm. The swampy jungles, the lure of hedonistic Bangkok, the austere, ambient Buddhism, and the torrential rains serve as backdrops for Connelly’s carefully crafted prose. Her account combines a keen sense of adventure with an affinity for Thai culture, chronicling the country’s intriguing underpinnings and exotic charms.
Burmese Lessons
Orange Prize winner Karen Connelly’s compelling memoir about her journey to Burma, where she fell in love with a leader of the Burmese rebel army. When Karen Connelly finds herself in Burma in the mid nineties, she discovers the unexpected beauty and generosity of a people struggling under a brutal military dictatorship. Carefully seeking out the regime s resisters, she is swept into the streets, where she witnesses mass demonstrations, beatings, and arrests and she runs from the soldiers and riot police herself. When it gets too risky for her to stay, Connelly flies back to Thailand, but she cannot leave Burma behind. Then, at a Christmas party, she meets Maung, the handsome and charismatic leader of a guerrilla army fighting against the Burmese military machine. An unlikely romance develops, leading Connelly to join Maung s military camp in the jungle. Maung wants to transform the armed struggle into a dissident focused political one. He also wants to marry Connelly and have a family with her. If she marries this man, she also weds his world and his lifelong cause. Taking the reader into a world as dangerous as it is enchanting, Connelly layers her radiant prose with passion, regret, sensuality, and humor. Burmese Lessons tells the story of how one woman came to love a wounded, remarkably beautiful country, and of a gifted man who has given his life to the struggle for change.
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