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The Year of Living Dangerously

The Year of Living Dangerously

Author(s): C J Koch

Location(s): Jakarta (Batavia)

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): 1960s

Location

Content

Jakarta: 1965. Smelling of petrol, frangipani, kretek cigarettes, hatred and fear, the city waits as racial tension mounts. It is The Year of Living Dangerously.
As each day passes, East and West alike wait for the explosions to begin in Jakarta – and for the bloody, abortive revolution that will leave half a million dead. For a group of ambitious Western journalists, this imminent internal apocalypse is their drug. Hooked on snatching the next story, the sufferings of the Indonesian people scarcely seem real.
But slowly all become subject to Jakarta’s insane uncertainties. And as the desperation of a society in torment comes to inform their own increasingly erratic actions, the simmering violence at the edge of their world becomes unbearably real…

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Lead Review

‘A strong sense of timeless Javanese atmosphere’ Guardian

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