Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, or the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi has become an international symbol of struggle against repression and brutality. In The Voice of Hope, she emerges as a human being--a mother of two sons as well as an inspirational human rights advocate and all-around moral compass. Once a soft-spoken scholar living in England, this daughter of a Burmese military hero catapulted to prominence as the spokesperson for her country's beleaguered democracy movement. Even when imprisoned by Burma's ruling junta, she continued to work for freedom and human rights, eventually winning the Nobel Peace Prize and attracting the world's attention to the plight of Burmese dissidents. The Voice of Hope chronicles nine months' worth of her conversations with British-born Alan Clements, a Burma expert and former Buddhist monk. The two discuss love, truth, power, compassion, and freedom from fear as well as Aung San Suu Kyi's own brand of activist Buddhism. In the process, a portrait emerges of a profoundly religious as well as political leader, a woman who used years of house arrest to develop her meditative practice, mindfulness, and spiritual strength.


The New York Times Book Review, Judith Shapiro
The dialogues express Aung San Suu Kyi's humor, erudition, wisdom and accessibility, and demonstrate why she has become a world spiritual leader.


Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In Burma, while thousands of political prisoners are detained and tortured, and thousands more flee the country to escape poverty and forced labor, a woman of delicate appearance and fierce determination leads her nation's struggle for freedom. They chant her name, "Aung San Suu Kyi! Democracy!" Bringing this story to the world is Alan Clements, an American who spent five years in Rangoon as a Buddhist monk. Over a period of months Clements met with Aung San Suu Kyi at her home, shortly after her release from house arrest in July 1995. Their conversations became The Voice of Hope, Aung San Suu Kyi's first published work since her release. The Voice of Hope is a journey to the heart of her struggle. In response to perceptive and probing questions by Clements, she describes how she has managed to sustain her hope and optimism even when her husband and two sons are kept from her, and while so many of her followers and associates have been hurt or killed. What are the foundations of her strength? What is her understanding of the motivations of her enemy, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)? How effective can nonviolence be in the modern world? In what ways does her Buddhism inspire her actions? How does she overcome feelings of resentment and vindictiveness? Why is the truth she speaks so threatening to her enemies? Does she envision her own death? Is there conflict between her Buddhist pursuits and her political ones? What are the limits of free speech? Is the struggle for freedom worth any sacrifice? In every case Aung San Suu Kyi's answers are honest, direct, unexpected, and rich. The Voice of Hope offers us a rare insight to an extraordinary life -- along with the empathy and vision to serve also as a moral compass in our own lives.

FROM THE CRITICS

Judith Shapiro

The conversations in The Voice of Hope...express Aung San Suu Kyi's humor, erudition, wisdom and accessibility, and demonstrate why she has become a world spiritual leader....Clements, a British citizen who lived for six years in Burman as a monk, is the ideal interlocutor. He invites Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss mindfulness, truth, hope, sincerity, love, friendship, power, self-deception, fear, hate. Turning to policy, she advocates a confederation for lasting peace with the ethnic minorities who have been fighting for decades for independence. She would end the drug trade by working with the poor to find substitute crops for poppies. She speaks also of her regret at missing years in the lives of her sons and of the familial closeness she feels toward her colleagues. -- New York Times Book Review

The London Observer

"This is the testimony of an active politician and passionate moralist. Whatever the future of Burma, a possible future for politics itself is illuminated by these conversations."

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING