The Interpreter from Java

Alfred Birney

ISBN 10: 1788544323 / ISBN 13: 9781788544320

Published by Head of Zeus, GB, 2020

About this Item

'What a great novel, its language and storytelling so light but also raw and lyrical. A tremendous writer. Read this book' ADRIAAN VAN DIS. Alan Noland discovers his father's memoirs and learns the truth about the violent man he despised. In 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. Birney 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.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781788544320

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Interpreter from Java
• Publisher: Head of Zeus, GB
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1788544323
• ISBN 13: 9781788544320
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

'What a great novel, its language and storytelling so light but also raw and lyrical. A tremendous writer. Read this book' ADRIAAN VAN DIS.

Alan Noland discovers his father's memoirs and learns the truth about the violent man he despised.

In 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.

Birney 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.

About the Author

Alfred Birney was born in 1951. For The Interpreter from Java he was awarded the Libris Literature Prize, the Netherlands' premier literary award, and the Henriėtte Roland Holst Prize. He lives in the Netherlands but speaks English fluently and will be coming to the UK for publication.