GenevaBookClub: Published in 2002 and translated into English in 2015; set in 20th Century Eka Kuriawan (born 1975) uses magic realism, and his work has led to comparisons to Gabriel Garcia Marquez Beauty Is a Wound set in the fictional coastal town of Halimunda, spans more than half a century. It revolves around Dewi Ayu, a wily prostitute of mythical beauty who has risen from the dead, and her accursed daughters, who are subjected to violence on a daily basis. The novel chronicles Indonesia’s occupation by the Japanese during the Second World War; its Indonesia bloody struggle with the Dutch, who attempted to reassert their control over Indonesia after the war; the massacres of the mid-sixties; the violence and corruption that marked Suharto’s New Order regime; and the nation’s anxious lurch toward self-determination after Suharto’s leadership crumbled, in 1998.

GenevaBookClub: Published in 1934; set in 1920s Burma, which was a British colony George Orwell (1903-1950) worked as a colonial policeman in Burma from 1922 to 1927. Burmese Days, his first novel, grew out of reflection on his own days as a colonial policeman in Burma during the 1920s. It tells the story of John Flory, a timber merchant, and his troubles relating to the other expats that he has to live and work with It provides a very caustic view of British colonialism at the ground level, where Orwell’s characters (and Orwell himself) must do “the dirty work of empire”.

GenevaBookClub: Published in 2000; set in 20th Century Burma, Malaya (now Malaysia) and India Amitav Ghosh (born in 1956 in Calcutta), who grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka A sprawling epic of love and colonialism, Ghosh’s novel follows several generations of Indians and Burmese as they either collaborate or resist the ever-present British Spans a century from the British invasion of Burma and the consequent fall of the Konbaung Dynasty in Mandalay, through the Second World War to late 20th century. Through the stories of a small number of privileged families, it illuminates the struggles that have shaped Burma, India and Malaya into the places they are today. Explores the various facets of the colonial period, including the economic fall of Burma, the rise of timber and rubber plantations, the moral dilemmas faced by Indians serving the British army, and the devastating effects of World War II