The Damage Done - Warren Fellows

In 1978, Warren Fellows was convicted in Thailand of heroin trafficking and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Damage Done is his story of an unthinkable nightmare in a place where sewer rats and cockroaches are the only nutritious food, and where the worst punishment is the khun deo - solitary confinement, Thai style. Fellows was certainly guilty of his crime, but he endured and survived human-rights abuses beyond imagination. This is not his plea for forgiveness, nor his denial of guilt; it is the story of an ordeal that no one would wish on their worst enemy. It is an essential read: heartbreaking, fascinating and impossible to put down.


Why Read - This book was lent to me by a friend, so i thought i would give it a go.

I enjoy sampling these types of stories as they are a world I hope never to be associated with. However finding out what goes on in these places is a curiosity as it is a place that you hear about and hope never to encounter.  Warren Fellows got caught up at the wrong place at the wrong time, he ignored all warning signs and ended up in the worst types of Prisons in Thailand.  Where their culture and laws are different than here and prison is a special kind of hell.  This story is harrowing and as reading you can't believe these things can go on. It leads to an almost detached reality where your safely tucked behind the pages of the book and you probably cannot fully relate to the horrors.

This novel was well written and intriguing. Its sad what happened behind the prison walls, and somewhat shocking read. However its unputdownable and fascinating.  He served a 12 year prison sentence which is a lot to squeeze into a short book and its very hard to grasp the time frame in this story.  He does jump about a lot and then towards the last few chapters he includes some of his diary entries, i felt this was a bit odd in the context of the novel to introduce them at such a late stage of the book.  It also helped sum up some of this book did feel a little disjointed which did make it even harder to relate.

Overall I think this is one of the better books I have read about this subject - and several people I know had also read this particular story. I found it fascinating, insightful and gripping.  I felt he had a good sense of connection with his reader and could give a brief overview of what life was like for him through this traumatic time.