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 Sukarnoâs 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.
âMap of the Invisible Worldâ is a masterful novel, and confirms Tash Aw as one of the most exciting young writers at work today.
Tash Aw was born in Taipei, in the Republic of China, and
brought up in Malaysia. He moved to England in his teens and
now lives in London. He is the author of âThe Harmony Silk Factoryâ, which was the winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Writersâ Prize for Best First Novel and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and âMap of the Invisible Worldâ. His most recent novel, âFive Star Billionaireâ, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2013.