As Japan’s empire crumbles, an island paradise ignites in revolution… "An almost tangible glimpse of the chaos that was Java in 1945-46. Marron's writing, infused with imaginative speculation, is sweeping, poignant, passionate and unflinching." (Publisher’s Catalogue) Japan's sudden surrender ends the Second World War but triggers the Indonesian declaration of independence from the Netherlands, catching the returning Dutch and 'Southeast Asia's peacekeepers', the British, by surprise. In a chaotic, mistrustful peace the British order the Japanese to defend the white colonial order. Recent foes have no choice but to become allies...of a kind. In greatest peril are 80,000 European women and children interned by the Japanese. Defenceless, abandoned and half-starved, some of them former sex slaves of the Japanese, they become hostages to fortune. As their former guards become their guardians, protecting them from hostile, armed mobs, hatreds and prejudices are hastily re-examined. British, Gurkha and Indian troops, veterans of the bitter Burma campaign against the Japanese, arrive in Java expecting a warm welcome, grateful civilians and easy duties. Very soon their orders are rewritten, and their mission and motives questioned, as they face determined, massive and frequently suicidal opposition in the war for Java….