The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly. Nan A Talese, 2007, pp448..... Karen Connelly?s novel of Burma brings a poet?s sensibilities to the dismal reality facing the country?s many prisoners of conscience... "We have few novels in English that attempt to capture the tedium and terror of life for Burma?s political prisoners; even fewer that do it as effectively as The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly. In some respects, Connelly tells the story of all political prisoners in Burma—the capricious nature of convictions, the brutality and sadism of prison officials and the psychological torments that accompany life in the ?lizard cage.? Connelly is an accomplished poet, and her lyricism breaks through the savagery of her subject matter in unexpected and compelling ways as she presents the journey of a songwriter, Teza, whose plunge into the dark and hopeless world of Burma?s prison life begins as it does for so many others with the democracy movement. But the novel has less to do with causes than effects, and the bulk of the narrative explores the confines of Teza?s solitary cell and the unanticipated threats to his physical and psychological well-being—from the external meddling of barbarous prison staff to the intense guilt that overcomes Teza as he compulsively hunts and eats the lizards in his prison cell..."