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Published Mar 2008
480 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
Burma is a country where, as one senior UN official puts it, "just to turn your head can mean imprisonment or death." Aung San Suu Kyi is considered to be Burma's best hope for freedom, and, 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, but 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, which earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
In Perfect Hostage, the most thorough biography of Suu Kyi to date, Justin Wintle tells both the story of the Burmese people and the story of an ordinary person who became a hero.
"... an impressively thorough account of Suu Kyi's life, brought up to date with a postscript to cover the Monks' Revolt of November 2007 .... One can hope that Suu Kyi will eventually be able to write and publish her own book. In the meantime, Wintle's book will be sought out in both public and academic libraries." - Library Journal.
"Starred Review. In making the reader care about the smallest things, Wintle makes the reader really care about the big thing - that "the world's best-known prisoner of conscience" is not free." - Publishers Weekly.
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