Revolusi

Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World

*Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2024* *Shortlisted for the Cundill Prize*

A story of staggering scope and drama, Revolusi is the masterful and definitive account of the epic revolution that changed the course of the 20th century.

'Astounding . history at its best' Yuval Noah Harari
'Utterly compelling . astonishing' Financial Times
'Superb' Guardian

On a sunny morning in August 1945, a handful of tired people raised a homemade cotton flag and announced the birth of a new nation: Indonesia. For three and a half centuries, its people had been subject to Dutch colonial rule. It would take another four years of guerrilla warfare and resistance – the ‘Revolusi’ – to finally win their freedom, blazing a trail that would reshape the world.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and eye-witness testimonies, David Van Reybrouck’s superbly woven narrative is alive with human detail at every turn, showing Indonesia’s struggle for independence to be one of the defining dramas of the twentieth century.

*A Financial Times, Evening Standard, History Today and Prospect Best Book of the Year*

‘A magnificent fusion of oral history, sparkling analysis and historical wisdom. Revolusi has it all: a masterpiece’ Sebastian Mallaby

‘Masterly . compelling . convincingly argues that Indonesia in itself represents a global crossroads, one of the most important in modern history’ Elizabeth Pisani, The Times

‘We learn something utterly fascinating on every single page’ Evening Standard, Books of the Year

‘The story of [Indonesia’s] formation is delivered in a manner that genuinely seems unsurpassable’ History Today, Books of the Year

‘Revolusi briskly ushers Indonesia onto the centre stage of modern history’ Pankaj Mishra

‘With rare narrative brilliance, Revolusi gives us a history at once vast and intimate, a history in colour’ Laksmi Pamuntjak

‘A magisterial and gripping account of events of urgent importance to us now’ Jason Burke

‘A wonderful and important book’ Peter Frankopan

‘Majestic and beautifully written’ Times Literary Supplement

‘Immensely readable’ Adam Hochschild, Atlantic

‘An electrifying narrative’ Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal

‘The definitive account of a neglected epoch’ Economist

‘Masterly’ J M Coetzee

Contributor: David Colmer (Translated by), David McKay (Translated by)

Translator: David Colmer, David McKay

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