A Woman of Independence: A Story of Love and the Birth of a New Nation - Kirsty Sword Gusmão

Title: A Woman of Independence: A Story of Love and the Birth of a New Nation
Author: Kirsty Sword Gusmão
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Format: Paperback
First published: 2003
ISBN: 0 7329 1197 4

Condition: Good second-hand condition. Minor shelf wear and light creasing to covers with general signs of handling. Binding remains firm and pages clean.

A compelling memoir of political struggle, love, and the fight for East Timorese independence.

In 1990, Kirsty Sword Gusmão first travelled to East Timor and became deeply involved in the country’s independence movement during the Indonesian occupation. Working undercover in Jakarta and later alongside resistance leader Xanana Gusmão, she became part of one of the defining political and humanitarian struggles in modern Southeast Asian history.

Part memoir, part political history, the book traces the clandestine resistance movement, international diplomacy, imprisonment, exile, and the eventual birth of an independent East Timor. At its centre is the remarkable relationship between Kirsty Sword and Xanana Gusmão, forged through letters, separation, and years of political turmoil.