From the Land of Green Ghosts

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View books by Pascal Khoo Thwe.

Everyone should read this book - Rated
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 and 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 and universal, a love letter to a lost world and to its ghosts, alive forever now in a book. I'm going to recommend it to everyone I know and I thank the author for his courage in surviving to be a voice for others.

Beautiful story - Rated
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 and culture so different from our own I couldn't put it down.

Fabulous Read - Rated
My only disappointment with this book was that I got to the end! An amazing (unique?)story of courage, resiliance, tragedy and 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 - Rated
This is a beautifully written book which combines very touching personal stories with hilarious anecdotes and moments of true horror. An amazing story very well told, and also an extremely interesting insight into a culture that accepts supernatural intervention as a commonplace occurence.

A resilient character - Rated
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' and 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, and 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 and the individual tribes that inhabit Burma. Something I found of great interest.