From the Land of Green Ghosts - by Pascal Khoo Thwe (Paperback)

About the Book

"Khoo Thwe, born in 1967, debuts with a remarkable portrait of his childhood in Phekhon, 'the only Catholic town in Burma, ' among the Padaung people, a subtribe of the Karenni, known for what outsiders call our 'giraffe women' because of their necks being elongated by rings."--"Publishers Weekly."

Book Synopsis

"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.

From the Back Cover

In 1988, Dr. John Casey, a professor visiting Burma, meets a waiter in Mandalay with a passion for the works of James Joyce, and the encounter changes both their lives.

Pascal, a member of the Kayan Padaung tribe, was the first member of his community to study English at a university. Within months of his meeting with Dr. Casey, Pascal's world lay in ruins. Burma's military dictatorship forces him to sacrifice his studies, and the regime's brutal armed forces murder his lover. Fleeing to the jungle, he becomes a guerrilla fighter in the life-or-death struggle against the government. In desperation, he writes a letter to the Englishman he met in Mandalay.

Miraculously reaching its destination, the letter leads to Pascal's rescue and his enrollment in Cambridge University, where he is the first Burmese tribesman ever to attend.

From the Land of Green Ghosts unforgettably evokes the realities of life in modern-day Burma and one man's long journey to freedom despite almost unimaginable odds.

Review Quotes

"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

"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." -- Financial Times

"A political statement as well as a poetic lament, the book is a true work of art." -- Financial Times

"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." -- Patrick French

"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." -- Sunday Times (London)

"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." -- Sunday Telegraph

"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." -- Mail on Sunday

"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." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A heartbreaking tale, told with lyricism, affection and insight." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"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." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"The best memoir you will read this year." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"Pascal Khoo Thwe's extraordinary memoir is unique as much for the riveting story it tells -- a young man from a semi-literate Burmese hill tribe flees a bloody civil war to attend Cambridge University -- as for the sublime way it is told. It's as if the very purpose of the author's arduous study of English literature was to enable him to tell this tale with requisite power and dignity. In fact, the narrative often reads like good fiction with its memorable characters, indelible images and an unwavering moral compass. " -- Seattle Times

"Unique as much for the riveting story it tells as for the sublime way it is told." -- Seattle Times

"[A] writer of uncommon elegance and sensitivity." -- New York Times Book Review

"...fascinating...a highly readable, absorbing work." -- The Oregonian (Portland)