This book is a series of letters Aung San Suu Kyi wrote from her home in Burma (now Myanmar) during 1996. It is both a beautiful and worrying read. The author has a lovely turn of phrase using words I’ve never used.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the Chairperson/General Secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) a political party formed in 1988 to contest the 1990 elections. It won hands down but the military junta disallowed the results and continued to rule the country keeping Aung San Suu Kyi and the rest of the members of the NLD and their supporters in terror of their lives and security. We’ve seen what this is like from outside Letters from Burma shows us what it was like from the inside.

The author deliberately shows us the country and the people, telling us how lovely the people are and how much they deserve peace and a government which rules by the law rather than by terror. She shows us how she copes with being under house arrest and tells us that she is living a normal life although what is normal when you’re under house arrest, your power may go at any time and you’re constantly and consistently worried about all your family and friends as you don’t know when they’ll be arrested.

Prison life was dreadful and if you happened to become ill in prison you risked picking up some other disease as the medical people would only give you half the injection and then use it on someone else. Apparently HIV was one of those diseases that spread.

We do see some of the celebrations that were held, Thingyan is given to us as a present in much detail and sounds great fun. It is a water festival and the author talks us through how it is celebrated and how people become quite drenched while being incredibly cheerful about it. It’s something you really have to read.

The illustrations at the beginning of each letter are quite gorgeous. I think they’re either pencil or charcoal and they give some idea of the beauty of the people and a good idea of something from each letter. The one of the baby is quite sweet and you can see how the nappy is put on quite differently to the way we do it here in Australia.

Anyway, enough from me, go and buy the book; you won’t regret it.