"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.