Product Description

Bill Burridge and his family think his first diplomatic posting is ideal. Even if the work at the embassy is more complex than he figured, Santa Irene is still paradise. That is, until the day revolutionaries kidnap him. Tortured beyond human endurance, he finds himself torn between the desire to die and his inability to give up.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3548862 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 186 pages

About the Author
Alan Cumyn is a research officer for the Immigration and Refugee Board, Ottawa. The author of the best-selling What in the World Is Going On? A Guide for Canadians Wishing to Work, Volunteer or Study in Other Countries, he has taught in China and Indonesia. His stories have appeared in The New Quarterly, Grain, The Fiddlehead, and Best Canadian Short Stories 1996. Parts of Man of Bone, his third novel, were published in The Pottersfield Portfolio and Blood and Aphorisms.

Customer Reviews

Gripping account of torture and transformation
Cumyn's character Bill Burridge is captured during his diplomatic assignment on a third world tropical island. He undergoes torture and hallucinations. The book is gripping, horrifying at times, yet always eloquent. Cumyn's voice is incredible. He is able to describe Bill's ordeal without being obvious. He brings the reader to the brink and then pulls you back in to a a safer place, leaving the readere to reflect on the value of human life and the value of a poor nation's human rights. Cumyn is a master of flashback. He effortlessly weaves the story back and forth in time, and in and out of the characters hallucinations. An outstanding book with an excellent sequel. (Burridge Unbound)