AustLit
595333834391525885.jpg
An Unlikely Prisoner : How an Eternal Optimist Found Hope in Myanmar's Most Notorious Jail
single work
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'How hope became one man's closest companion in his darkest hour.
'For 650 days Sean Turnell was held in Myanmar's terrifying Insein Prison on the trumped-up charge of being a spy. In An Unlikely Prisoner he recounts how an impossibly cheerful professor of economics, whose idea of an uncomfortable confrontation was having to tell a student that their essay was 'not really that good', ended up in one of the most notorious prisons in South-East Asia. And how he not only survived his lengthy incarceration, but left with his sense of humour intact, his spirit unbroken and love in his heart.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
The Box : A Personal Account of Imprisonment
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January - February no. 461 2024; (p. 11)
— Review of An Unlikely Prisoner : How an Eternal Optimist Found Hope in Myanmar's Most Notorious Jail 2023 single work autobiography'Sean Turnell is an Australian economist who was detained by Myanmar’s military regime from February 2021 until November 2022. An Unlikely Prisoner, his account of the ordeal, has quite a personal tone as he relates his struggle with unjust imprisonment by a regime whose hallmark was ‘a mix of the needlessly brutal, the petty, and the incompetent’. This personal story is also mixed with politics, for Turnell has an insider’s view of Myanmar’s ongoing struggle for freedom, one of the great dramas of modern Asian history.' (Introduction)
-
The Box : A Personal Account of Imprisonment
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January - February no. 461 2024; (p. 11)
— Review of An Unlikely Prisoner : How an Eternal Optimist Found Hope in Myanmar's Most Notorious Jail 2023 single work autobiography'Sean Turnell is an Australian economist who was detained by Myanmar’s military regime from February 2021 until November 2022. An Unlikely Prisoner, his account of the ordeal, has quite a personal tone as he relates his struggle with unjust imprisonment by a regime whose hallmark was ‘a mix of the needlessly brutal, the petty, and the incompetent’. This personal story is also mixed with politics, for Turnell has an insider’s view of Myanmar’s ongoing struggle for freedom, one of the great dramas of modern Asian history.' (Introduction)
- Myanmar,
