Lit in Translation

The Interpreter from Java

De tolk van Java

Alfred Birney (born 1951)

Translated by David Doherty

English editions

In English

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Two narratives run side by side. In one, a veteran of the Dutch colonial army recalls the Bersiap, the bloody chaos that engulfed Java after Japan surrendered in 1945 and lasted until the Dutch offensives of 1947 and 1949, a period full of treason and shifting allegiances. In the other, his son grows up in the claustrophobic Holland of the 1960s, where nobody discussed the loss of the colony; he endures beatings, children's homes and divided loyalties between two cultures, and finds the strength to survive his unstable father.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form
Novel
Length
541 pages in the original
Genres
War, Family, Historical (assigned by AI)
Set in
Indonesia, Netherlands, 1940s–1960s
First published
2016 by De Geus
Author's age
65 when first published
ISBN

9789044536447 (original)

9781788544313 (Head of Zeus, United Kingdom)

9781788544344 (Head of Zeus, United Kingdom)