A review by margaretefg
Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw

4.0

So much to marvel at in this book, set mostly in the period just before the overthrow of Sukarno in 1965. The Indonesian brothers at the heart of the story were orphaned (nothing about their birthparents) and then separated, one adopted by a wealthy, dysfunctional couple in Malaysia, the other, younger brother Adam adopted by a Dutch returnee? Karl, who seems incredibly sweet and impossibly idealistic. Margaret Bates, (are her parents supposed to seem like Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson?) once in love with Karl, is now a 40 something long term resident of Jakarta who speaks multiple local languages comfortably. And... There's political turmoil, plotting Communists, a bomb, a beautiful student/propagandist...aging Aussie newsman, ex CIA(?) US Embassy official. Lots of plot twists. And young men trying to figure themselves out with all the added complications of having been adopted. And scenes of rural and urban Indonesia in the 1950s/60s.