East Timor is Asia’s youngest country. The Timorese have been struggling for years to rebuild their state after the flames, pillage and mayhem that surrounded Indonesia’s reluctant withdrawal in 1999.

Irena Cristalis was one of a handful of journalists who stayed on to witness East Timor’s birth as an independent nation.

After years of research and interviews, she recounts the rarely told story of the lives of individual Timorese and explores the complexities of the nation’s politics.

Irena Cristalis is a writer, photographer and broadcaster.