This book is a vivid first-hand account of the birth of the world's youngest county, East Timor, of the lives of individual Timorese during the long decades of Indonesia's repressive occupation, of their often heroic struggle for freedom, and of their efforts to cope with and make sense of the dramatic historic shifts engulfing them. Based on years of research, and lengthy interviews with East Timor's past, present, and future leaders, the book explores the complexities of East Timor's internal politics.