Book description
From the author of the internationally acclaimed, Whitbread
Award-winning 'The Harmony Silk Factory' comes an enthralling new novel
that evokes an exotic yet turbulent and often frightening world.
Sixteen-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. Tash Aw's
debut novel The Harmony Silk Factory was the winner of the Whitbread
First Novel Award and a Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First
Novel, as well as being longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He was born
in Malaysia and now lives in London.
