This terse but moving autobiography of a freedom lover unfolds the dramatic story of Indonesia before and during its struggle for independence from foreign domination. K'tut Tantri is the Hindu name given a naturalized American who was British by birth, of Manx ancestry, had a Scot for a stepfather, and gave up a lucrative career as a columnist in the heyday of Hollywood in order to go to Bali to paint. Her early attempts to avoid political involvement, her unconcern for convention in the face of necessity, her survival through two years of torture and solitary confinement at the hands of the Japanese, and her deep devotion to the cause of Indonesian Merdeka-freedom-- are only the screen against which she projects a patriot's views of Dutch colonialism. Her fast-paced tale is given without cumbersome documentation, but it is convincing even in its contrasts. She writes with a simplicity and directness uncommon to Western prose. As a picture of the life of seven million Indonesians, this is a chronicle of some significance.