The Orientalist And The Ghost - Barker, Susan

In Malaysia during the 1950s Communist insurrection, a young Englishman, Christopher, falls in love with a Chinese girl an affair that ends in tragedy when, under attack from Communist guerrillas, Christopher is betrayed, beaten, and left for dead. In 1969, Frances, Christopher's Eurasian teenage daughter, is seduced by a Chinese teacher twice her age and drawn into the Malay-Chinese race riots in Kuala Lumpur. The story then travels to 1990s London, when the ghosts of that time return to haunt Christopher, triggering vivid memories of colonial misconduct and lost love. Frances's two mixed-race children live with their grandfather on a council estate, and embark on a quest to discover the truth behind their mother's death.

Softcover. English. Black Swan. 2009. ISBN: 9780552772419. 384 pp. Good. Book No: 61000