Ashes in a Coconut

Author(s): Bo Kearns

Location(s): Bali, Jakarta (Batavia), Java

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): Modern

New York City fashion designer Laura Harrison sets aside her career and accompanies her banker husband Jack to Indonesia to save her marriage. En route to Jakarta, they stopover in Bali where she experiences the mysticism and magic of the local culture. Laura’s superstitious and feelings of unease rise to the surface. She expects their new home in Jakarta to be a romantic hideaway, like something out of a classic Bogart movie. Instead she walks into a house of horrors. White sheets cover gothic furnishings and black garments hang in the closets. It’s as if the former occupants fled from some danger. Though alarmed, she’s determined to make things work. At the market, she sees a baby orangutan for sale, its mother killed by poachers. Her heart goes out to the poor creature and she discovers her passion — saving the endangered primates and their vulnerable habitat. Meanwhile Jack ambitious yet naïve becomes ensnarled in the corrupt underworld of Indonesian business and politics. He decides to finance a logging project in the rainforest, putting their marriage, and their lives, in jeopardy.

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