Customer Reviews
Everyone should read this book - By: TemmaD, 16 May 2008 
I started to read this book a few days before the monsoon struck Burma. I finished it a week later. I rarely write reviews but was so moved by this reminder of the power of literature to link strangers across time & space. Burma has been a headline to me for so many years - aware of the horror, but without a sense of the human cost of living under one of the world's worst dictatorships or why it has been tolerated for so long. In beautifully written prose,this tells a remarkable story both unique & universal, a love letter to a lost world & to its ghosts, alive forever now in a book. I'm going to recommend it to everyone I know & I thank the author for his courage in surviving to be a voice for others.
Beautiful story - By: P. Duval, 21 Oct 2007 Absolutely brilliant book, like entering another world. Can't understand the accusations of egotism against the author. He paints a fascinating magical picture of a land & culture so different from our own I couldn't put it down.
Fabulous Read - By: C. M. E. Beckingham, 03 Jan 2006 My only disappointment with this book was that I got to the end! An amazing (unique?)story of courage, resiliance, tragedy & ultimately personal triumph. A recommended read for anyone over the age of sixteen. One of those books you will remember for a very long time (and may even change your life........)
Excellently written autobiography - By: Emmett, 23 Mar 2005 This is a beautifully written book which combines very touching personal stories with hilarious anecdotes & moments of true horror. An amazing story very well told, & also an extremely interesting insight into a culture that accepts supernatural intervention as a commonplace occurence.
A resilient character - By: , 09 Oct 2003 As mentioned in other reviews, I found this book had quite a slow start. My expectations had focussed around this book being about the student rebellion that happened in late '80's Burma.
In fact the book spends a long time in the author's childhood. At first I wasn't sure this was the correct start but as you enter the book further you realise that it underpins a lot of what comes next.
From the period when the author entered the University in Mandalay I was hooked on this book. The stories about being a 'rebel' & having to escape from the Military Dictatorship show the degree of resilience that the author holds. His time in Cambridge is covered with no pretension, just highlighting the difficulty of the culture change, & the problems associated with his initial low degree of knowledge as regards the English language.
Having read a number of books on Burma I found this didn't cover as much about the 'democratic rebellion' as others. However it told me a lot more about the culture of the Burmese & the individual tribes that inhabit Burma. Something I found of great interest.
