Map of the Invisible World - Hardcover

Aw, Tash

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 000728988X ISBN 13: 9780007289882

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2009

Synopsis

From the author of the internationally acclaimed, Costa Award-winning The Harmony Silk Factory comes an enthralling new novel that evokes an exotic yet turbulent and often frightening world.

16-year-old Adam is an orphan three times over. He and his older brother, Johan, were abandoned by their mother as children; he watched as Johan was adopted and taken away by a wealthy couple; and he had to hide when Karl, the Dutch man who raised him, was arrested by soldiers during Sukarno's drive to purge 1960s Indonesia of its colonial past.

Adam sets out on a quest to find Karl, but all he has to guide him are some old photos and letters, which send him to the colourful, dangerous capital, Jakarta. Johan, meanwhile, is living a seemingly carefree, privileged life in Malaysia, but is careening out of control, unable to forget the long-ago betrayal of his helpless, trusting brother.

Map of the Invisible World is a masterful novel, and confirms Tash Aw as one of the most exciting young writers at work today.

About this title

Review

"Reminiscent of Graham Greene . . . powerful and mesmerizing . . . haunting and memorable."--"The Guardian" (U.K.) "Full of immense intelligence and empathy."--"Time""" "Beautifully written . . . The tension of the lives of Aw's characters, the frayed fabric of Jakarta . . . the dichotomies of beauty and squalor, the mobs, the menace, the impending crisis--all of this is captured in "Map of the Invisible World "with a fidelity that can't be faulted."--"The Washington Post" "Exquisite . . . What makes ["Map of the Invisible World"] brilliant are its rootless main characters. These fully formed individuals and their relationships transform [this] novel into a moving meditation on identity, memory, and art."--"Time Out New York " "Exquisitely and subtly rendered . . . Aw's haunting writing and his detailed evocation of 1960s Indonesia are both masterly."--"The Christian Science Monitor" "[A] vibrant narrative . . . enveloping the reader in several haun

Synopsis

The second novel from the author of The Harmony Silk Factory, winner of the Whitbread Best First Novel Award. During their years together in the orphanage Johan keeps a constant vigil over his little brother Adam - he's all he's got. But they are placed in different adoptive homes and lose all contact. Johan is taken to Kuala Lumpur by a wealthy Malaysian couple, to a life of smart restaurants and expensive cars, whilst Adam remains in Indonesia where he is adopted in by a Dutch painter, Karl, and finds himself growing up in a simple coastal town. Adam often thinks of his brother, but as the years pass, the memories become less painful, and he adapts to his new life. However, in the summer of 1964 unrest is in the air as post-colonial Indonesia slides gradually towards civil war. Foreigners, and especially the Dutch, are treated with increasing hostility. When Karl is arrested, sixteen-year-old Adam resolves to do all that he can to find him.He makes his way to an old friend of Karl's in Jakarta who agrees to help, but in the volatile atmosphere of the capital, and lured by the promise of help to find his brother, Adam quickly falls in with a dangerous crowd and is swept up in events that reach far beyond his understanding!

. A worthy successor to highly-acclaimed The Harmony Silk Factory, Map of the Invisible World is a touching tale of love and loss, friendships and belonging, and the indissoluble ties of family.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 000728988X
• ISBN 13: 9780007289882
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400