Revolusi

Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World

By: David Van Reybrouck, David Colmer - translator, David McKay

Narrated by: Neil Gardner

Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

A story of staggering scope and drama, Revolusi is the masterful and definitive account of the epic revolution that sparked the decolonisation of the modern world.

On a sunny Friday morning in August 1945, a handful of tired people raised a homemade cotton flag and on behalf of 68 million compatriots announced the birth of a new nation. With the fourth largest population in the world, inhabiting islands that span an eighth of the globe, Indonesia became the first colonised country to declare its independence after the Second World War.

Four million civilians had died during the wartime occupation by the Japanese that ousted the Dutch colonial regime. Another 200,000 people would lose their lives in the astonishingly brutal conflict that ensued - as the Dutch used savage violence to reassert their control, and as Britain and America became embroiled in pacifying Indonesia's guerrilla war of resistance: the 'Revolusi'. It was not until December 1949 that the newly created United Nations convinced the Netherlands to cede all sovereignty to Indonesia, finally ending 350 years of colonial rule and setting a precedent that would reshape the world.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and eye-witness testimonies, David Van Reybrouck turns this vast and complex story into an utterly gripping narrative that is alive with human detail at every turn. A landmark publication, Revolusi shows Indonesia's struggle for independence to be one of the defining dramas of the twentieth century and establishes its author as one of the most gifted narrative historians at work in any language today.

'A wonderful and important book' PETER FRANKOPAN

'A masterly display of the historian’s craft' J M COETZEE

'A magnificent fusion of oral history, sparkling analysis, and historical wisdom. Revolusi has it all: a masterpiece' SEBASTIAN MALLABY

©2024 David Van Reybrouck (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Extraordinary

Simply one of the best audiobooks I have ever listened to. Original in its structure, fascinating content and covering an unjustly neglected topic.

Good book poor narration

Great book overall, very well written.
However the narrator felt the need to mimic (poorly) the voice of every interviewee in the book. It was unecessary, not to say cringe, and all the more damaging to the overall narration as interviews were supposed to be the central elements of the book.
My greatest grievance is the mispronounciation of indonesian / dutch words and names. If the narrator could have spent the same effort looking into pronounciations as he did imitating the voice of elderly people, I would not have been complaining half as much.