“Days in Burma” is a harsh and mocking work about the “white colonizers” of the East—united in their feeling of superiority over the natives, yet divided within themselves, worn out by snobbery and petty feuds. “The Vicar’s Daughter” is an engrossing story about how a simple accident can change a life beyond recognition, turning deeply sincere Vera into nothing more than a habit. “Long Live the Fig Tree!” and “To Breathe Air” are very different, but equally witty novels that play with the theme of a clash between a vivid personality and the narrow-minded, bourgeois ideas of happiness.