{"product_id":"the-interpreter-from-java-9781788544337","title":"The Interpreter from Java","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e'What a great novel, its language and storytelling so light but also raw and lyrical. A tremendous writer. Read this book' ADRIAAN VAN DIS. \u003cp\u003eAlan Noland discovers his father's memoirs and learns the truth about the violent man he despised. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this unsparing family history, Alan distils his father's life in the Dutch East Indies into one furious utterance. He reads about his work as an interpreter during the war with Japan, his life as an assassin, and his decision to murder Indonesians in the service of the Dutch without any conscience. How he fled to the Netherlands to escape being executed as a traitor and met Alan's mother soon after. As he reads his father's story Alan begins to understand how war transformed his father into the monster he knew. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBirney exposes a crucial chapter in Dutch and European history that was deliberately concealed behind the ideological facade of postwar optimism. Readers of this superb novel will find that it reverberates long afterwards in their memory. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A masterly novel about the violence of colonialism, the war of decolonisation, the repatriation of the collaborators and the consequences all of this has had on the families of those involved' \u003ci\u003eDe Groener Amsterdammer\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e'Birney mercilessly exposes a crucial part of Dutch history. This masterful novel will echo in the minds of its readers' \u003ci\u003eDe Volkskrant\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e'What a great novel, its language and storytelling so light but also raw and lyrical. A tremendous writer. Read this book' Adriaan van Dis, author of \u003ci\u003eMy Father's War\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBetrayal\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e'A work of unbridled, incensed storytelling: an assault on the lazy assumptions of parochial, colonial history and a personal quest for redemption' \u003ci\u003eSouth China Morning Post\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50470035194199,"sku":"9781788544337","price":13.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781788544337.jpg?v=1744897206","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-interpreter-from-java-9781788544337","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}