From the Land of Green Ghosts : A Burmese Odyssey
Author(s): Pascal Khoo Thwe
“A page-turner…deeply moving, beautifully written, and most inspiring. When I reached the last page, my heart was filled with joy and gratitude.” — Nien Chang, author of Life and Death in Shanghai
An emotionally charged and lyrically written memoir about a remarkable odyssey from a Burmese hill tribe and a land torn by civil war to Cambridge University.
It was during a tour on a trip through Burma that John Casey, a Cambridge don, first met Pascal Khoo Thwe, who was moonlighting in a Chinese restaurant to support himself as a student at Mandalay University. Thwe was born a member of the Padaung tribe in Burma where political turmoil and poverty are ever-present realities.
Thwe left school to join the student rebels during the great insurrection of 1988, but remained in touch with Casey. He was forced to flee the country. It was his connection to Casey that enabled him to emigrate to England where he was admitted to Cambridge University. Despite his humble beginnings and the oppression he faced, Pascal Khoo Thwe brings us into a world forgotten by the West, but one that readers will not soon forget.
Review(s):
“A page-turner…deeply moving, beautifully written, and most inspiring. When I reached the last page, my heart was filled with joy and gratitude.”
“FROM THE LAND OF GREEN GHOSTS is a requiem written in exile for a once rich country destroyed by a corrupt regime. It honours the ideals of fellow students in their dream of a free and multi-ethnic Burma. And while it bears the wry and unmistakable imprint of Pascal’s literary education, it has an immediacy and lyrical candour all of its own. A political statement as well as a poetic lament, the book is a true work of art.”
“A political statement as well as a poetic lament, the book is a true work of art.”
“A perceptive, moving, elegant, earthy, ironic book about the innocence of tribal life, the absurdity of the Burmese Road to Socialism, the perils of rebellion, and the painful benefits of exile. Pascal Khoo Thwe has written an extraordinary, tragic memoir in luminous English, with no self-pity, but with a powerful self-knowledge.”
“FROM THE LAND OF GREEN GHOSTS is a moving story that travels from a remote hill village to modern Cambridge by way of a brutal regime and the struggle of decent ordinary people to counter it. In places it is a thrilling and fascinating page-turner. In others, it fills one with respectful awe at the resilience and determination of a young man to fight despair and never lose hope.”
“What gives [this story] particular resonance is the beauty of its prose: rich, vivid and never..cloying. He never loses his sense of humanity; always seeing through the barbarism to the frailty--and folly--beneath. The result is a marvelous book, full of pity, yearning and wisdom.”
“FROM THE LAND OF GREEN GHOSTS is a magical story, full of richness and subtlety, told with the instinctive touch of a true writer. An extraordinary tale.”
“A distinguished accomplishment that radiates both intelligence and spiritual awareness...[this is an] incisively told, remarkable story of a long journey from the hills of Burma to Cambridge University, from a young Burmese man now living in Britain.”
“A heartbreaking tale, told with lyricism, affection and insight.”
“From the Land of Green Ghosts is probably the best memoir you will read this year. The Padaung believe that those who die violent deaths return as terrifying “green ghosts,” and they refer to Burma as the land of green ghosts. Pascal Khoo Thwe couldn’t be further from that land, but the memories of his life there continue to haunt him and make exceptionally haunting reading.”
Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize
ISBN: 9780060505233