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    Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Prisoner of Conscience
    Unavailable
    Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Prisoner of Conscience
    Unavailable
    Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Prisoner of Conscience
    Ebook679 pages10 hours

    Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Prisoner of Conscience

    By Justin Wintle

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The “absorbing . . . charming and persuasive” story of Nobel Peace Prize–winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the world’s best-known prisoner of conscience (Publishers Weekly).

    As one senior UN official put it, Burma is a country where “just to turn your head can mean imprisonment or death.” Aung San Suu Kyi is considered to be Burma’s best hope for freedom. Because of her unwavering commitment to nonviolent resistance to the country’s brutal military junta, she has been under house arrest since 1989. Elected prime minister, she was prevented from taking office. Despite failing health, vilification at the hands of the Burmese media, and actual imprisonment in one of the world’s most appalling jails, Suu Kyi has persevered in a campaign of nonviolent protest as unflagging as those of Gandhi, King, and Mandela.
     
    Perfect Hostage, the most thorough biography of Suu Kyi to date, tells both the story of the Burmese people and the story of an ordinary person who became a hero.
     
    “She’s my hero.” —Bono
     
    “In physical stature she is petite and elegant, but in moral stature she is a giant.” —Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize recipient
     
    “It is time for all respectable members of the international community to . . . take active measures to secure the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese people.” —Sen. John McCain
     
    “A marvel . . . Wintle mingles sober history and gossipy chat.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
     
    “Wintle writes with a snarling wit, firm grasp of Burma’s horrors, and penetrating respect for this tenacious and composed prisoner of conscience, detailing her genius for connecting with people, the threats against her life, and her devotion to peace.” —Booklist (starred review)
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJul 1, 2013
    ISBN9781626364837
    Unavailable
    Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Prisoner of Conscience

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    Reviews for Perfect Hostage

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    • 3/5
      More than just a biography of Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi, this book depicts the context of her struggle through a comprehensive background of Burma's fight for independence (from the British) and the tortuous beginnings of the democracy movement (albeit still unfulfilled until now) and the role of her father, Aung San, in building post-colonial Burma. The book is fairly detailed as well about the rise of the generals to power, and how the regime has managed so far to keep the country isolated. Overall, very good background reading for anybody interested in Burma's politics, and a better understanding of Suu Kyi's principles and ongoing fight. A trifle amusing, though, is the author's penchant for unfamiliar words --- he peppers the pages liberally, which could be a little off-putting sometimes. Some commentators say the book's drawback is that the author never had an interview or direct contact with Suu Kyi herself when writing the book. I'm sure the book would have benefited greatly from this, but i'm sure too that if the author could, he would have - the current severe restrictions on access to her, though, would make this almost an impossibility. Still, i found the book enlightening and very informative.
    • 4/5
      That there is very little international coverage of Burma speaks to the choke hold that the junta have over the Burmese and foreigners living there. The horrors of genocide against the ethnic minorities by Burma's military regime resulted in hundreds of thousands of Karens, Mons, Chins, Kachins, Shans and other non-Burmans to flee across the border to Thailand, India and China. In a country where, as one UN senior official in Bangkok said, " just to turn your head can mean imprisonment or death", rose a woman who espoused democracy and human rights, a woman who returned to Burma, leaving her comfortable life in England, leaving her husband, her sons and her friends, in the knowledge that this was the time for her to take a stand for the people of Burma, to continue the work her father, assassinated General Aung San, started. That she has remained under house arrest starting in 1989 and not executed like many other dissenters to the military government indicate the government's recognition that this woman the people call 'The Lady" was not someone they could make quietly disappear without an international outcry and repercussions.The woman is Aung San Suu Kyi, and her amazing story through letters, speeches and clandestine interview notes by many brave people of Burma, is well told in this book. You may not agree with how she chose to try and bring about unity, and you may not agree with her decision to choose to stay in Burma instead of being with her children, but you will admire the strength of character this Nobel Peace Prize winner displays even in the face of tremendous physical and psychological challenges.