''13 Carat Diamond and Other Stories'' is a collection of
short stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
by
Khin Myo Chit
Khin Myo Chit ( my, ခင်မျိုးချစ်, ; 1 May 1915 – 2 January 1999) was a Burmese author and journalist, whose career spanned over four decades. She began her career writing short stories in Burmese for ''Dagon Magazine ...
. It was published in 1969, with a second edition ({{ISBN, 1-933570-52-0) released in October 2005. The collection contains glimpses of the author's life and the
culture of Burma
The culture of Myanmar (also known as Burma) ( my, မြန်မာ့ယဉ်ကျေးမှု) has been heavily influenced by Buddhism. Burmese culture has also been influenced by its neighbours.
In more recent times, British colonial ...
, as well as fiction.
The title story, ''The 13 Carat Diamond'', first appeared in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' magazine in 1955, and was later included in ''
50 Great Oriental Stories'', published by
Bantam Classics
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...
. The story describes the author's own experiences in war-time
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
.
The anthology includes the stories:
# ''The 13-Carat Diamond''
# ''Home-Coming''
# ''The Golden Princess''
# ''Electra Triumphs''
# ''The Ruse''
# ''The Bearer of the Betel Casket''
# ''The Egg and I''
# ''I Believe in Miracles''
# ''Of Mice and Men''
# ''Sweet Airs that Give Delight''
# ''Fortune-Telling is Fun''
# ''The Late Princess Mindat''
# ''Why Writers Write''
# ''A Writer's Prayer''
# ''The Man Who Twirls His Beard''
# ''Chit Pe the Lunatic and Money''
# ''Till the Hair Rots and Falls to the Ground''
External links
ayinepan.com catalogue pagemyanmarbookshop.com page
*Sample pages of the book can be viewed a
Google Books
1969 short story collections
Burmese short story collections
Short stories set in Myanmar