found on table outside antiques shop in Vevey, 2 frs

An extraordinary find and an extraordinary book - the memoir of a young Padaung man (one of the many tribes making up the population of Burma, or Myanmar as the government wants it to be called), with a Catholic and strong animist upbringing. In the 1980s he joins the student rebels in the jungle near the border with Thailand, eventually escaping to Cambridge thanks to the help of a don he metwhen working as a waiter in Mandalay (via knowledge of books by James Joyce and a chance encounter with the daughter of Evelyn Waugh), and finally graduating at Caius in English literature. His insider account of the horrifying atrocities perpetrated against the Burmese is graphic, hard-hitting and devastating, often bringing me to tears; this is not for the faint-hearted. Yet the presence of the spirits, protecting and guiding him throughout, is palpable from beginning to end, as is the presence of his grandmother who appears in an amazing epilogue. I am curious to know what has become of Pascal.

circulating among the ladies of my reading group

Somehow this found its way to our OBCZ, which closed today. It's been on the shelf for quite a while so I have moved it to the Blécherette bookbox where I hope it will be picked up (books in there move quickly).

on the top shelf