Engagingly written and intelligently documented.”

Journalist Pederson delivers a penetrating portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the Burmese National League for Democracy party, in a thoughtful biography that reveals the ‘moody, temperamental’ side of its charismatic and visionary subject…Pederson charts Myanmar’s ‘winter thaw,’ which earned Suu Kyi a seat in Parliament, and while Suu Kyi’s fearlessness and Buddhist faith have carried her far, observers continue to wonder what impact her work will have on a country that has stymied US presidents since Reagan.”

An ambitious and necessary work. An illuminating dossier about a heroic woman and a nation walking, slowly, toward a freer land.”

Tart and witty. Pederson’s book shines.”

The long, hard road to ‘national reconciliation’ wrought by Burmese national heroine Aung San Suu Kyi. Dallas journalist Pederson evokes the quiet, stubborn dignity of this rather improbable political icon of Myanmar, a multiethnic country of mostly Buddhists…Pederson visited her subject several times, and she draws a deeply nuanced portrait of the enigmatic, inspiring leader.”

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the towering figures of our age: a tireless champion of democracy, freedom, and reconciliation. Rena Pederson captures Suu Kyi as few others have, producing a vivid account of the life of this remarkable woman. The Burma Spring is a valuable resource for anyone interested in contemporary Burma.”

The riveting story of Suu Kyi’s brutal imprisonment, deplorable maltreatment, astonishing inner strength, and ultimate survival is told with a historian’s appreciation for context and circumstance…in a complex and sweeping history of Burma’s centuries-old struggle to maintain a closed society, yet manifest its power on a global scale.”

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the towering figures of our age: a tireless champion of democracy, freedom and reconciliation. Rena Pederson captures Suu Kyi as few others have, producing a vivid account of the life of this remarkable woman. The Burma Spring is a valuable resource for anyone interested in contemporary Burma.

An ambitious and necessary work. An illuminating dossier about a heroic woman and a nation walking, slowly, toward a freer land.

Impressively researched and compellingly written, Rena Pederson has woven together the epic journey of Aung San Suu Kyi with the turbulent story of her country, Burma, in a fascinating and inspiring way.

Writing a biography of a living legend is never easy, especially when the living legend is legendarily inaccessible. Rena Pederson has managed to break through the difficulties to publish a thick, fascinating biography. Pederson’s book is as much a biography of Burma as it is a biography of a courageous, charismatic woman who has risked her life to end the dark ages through political activism. An important book.

Tart and witty. Pederson’s book shines.

Wonderfully inspirational. A must read.

2014-11-20
The long, hard road to "national reconciliation" wrought by Burmese national heroine Aung San Suu Kyi (b. 1945).Dallas journalist Pederson (Writing/Southern Methodist Univ.; The Lost Apostle: Searching for the Truth About Junia, 2006, etc.) evokes the quiet, stubborn dignity of this rather improbable political icon of Myanmar, a multiethnic country of mostly Buddhists. The daughter of visionary war hero and founder Aung San, who had been brokering independence from Britain when he was assassinated by the Burmese military in 1947, Suu Kyi was largely drawn into politics by accident, more out of a sense of duty than personal political engagement. Pederson looks at the factors that led the martyr's daughter, educated at Oxford University, married to British academic Michael Aris in 1971 and the mother of two sons, to return to her homeland after years away and take up the crusade for democracy. The 20-year military dictatorship of Gen. Ne Win had essentially ruined one of the most prosperous and literate nations in Southeast Asia, relegating it to the status of "basket case" by the spring of 1988, when Suu Kyi returned to care for her ailing mother just as student demonstrations began to erupt in response to economic oppression. Urged to take up the banner of democracy in the name of her father, she began to make her first speeches about the military crackdown, referring to her father's assassination: "People have been saying I know nothing of Burmese politics. The trouble is, I know too much." Harassment only fed her determination and popularity, and separation from her husband and sons did not deter her. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, Suu Kyi could not claim it until the end of her house arrest 20 years later, thanks to international pressure by Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright, among others. Pederson visited her subject several times, and she draws a deeply nuanced portrait of the enigmatic, inspiring leader.