CATEGORY

For more than a hundred years, nothing has changed at Thistlethwaite, a gloomy old mansion in rural northwest England that shelters a society of poets and scholars with lots of money at their disposal, but little common sense.Then a mysterious stranger, a poet from Java who has won a fellowship from the society, arrives in their midst.

Noor brings with him healing potions, a magic kris, and a bawdy ancient epic fascinating glimpses of a world utterly unknown to the innocent inhabitants of Thistlethwaite. One by one they fall under Noors spell, especially Tildy, the societys 60-year-old director who thought she had learned to live without love. When a scandal threatens to shut down Thistlethwaite forever, Noor comes to the rescue, leading a merry chase that careers from a ruined castle in the wilds of England to the luxurious watering holes of Singapore to a chaotic household in Jogjakarta.

Acerbic, often hilarious satire in the tradition of Evelyn Waugh and Jonathan Franzen, The Java Man tells the story of Noor, a picaresque Indonesian poet who comes to England on a fellowship, where he wreaks emotional havoc among the inhabitants of a secluded country village. The book is set in present-day England, Singapore, and Indonesia.

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Jamie Jamess second novel, is a witty, entertaining, deeply compassionate study of miscommunication across the cultural divide, the dangerous limitations of book learning and the healing power of love.

"The Java Man is odd and highly readable. Thought light and witty, it is also sharply perceptive and, occasionally, mysterious."- The Jakarta Post -