---
product_id: 46459164
title: "The Rainbow Troops: A Novel"
brand: "andrea hirataangie kilbane"
price: "€ 35.87"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 10
url: https://www.desertcart.fi/products/46459164-the-rainbow-troops-a-novel
store_origin: FI
region: Finland
---

# The Rainbow Troops: A Novel

**Brand:** andrea hirataangie kilbane
**Price:** € 35.87
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Rainbow Troops: A Novel by andrea hirataangie kilbane
- **How much does it cost?** € 35.87 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.fi](https://www.desertcart.fi/products/46459164-the-rainbow-troops-a-novel)

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## Description

The Rainbow Troops: A Novel

## Images

![The Rainbow Troops: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81MrZm1XygL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans
  

*by H***R on Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2013*

Quite a discovery. A modern Indonesian autobiographical novel about growing up among poor Malays in Sumatra.'No matter how bad their circumstances, they always consider themselves fortunate. That is the use of religion.' (Does anybody feel reminded of a famous quote from another writer?)Belitong, or Billiton, is an Indonesian island to the east of South Sumatra. It is not a poor island, due to its tin mines (the company BHP Billiton originated here), but it has its share of poor people, the laborers, fishermen, and farmers. The book was a commercial success in a country not famous for widespread reading. It is well worth our time.(By the way, the island is also Conrad territory, see The Rescue.)The main theme is poor kids' struggle for schooling: a small elementary school of the Muhammadiya persuasion, or rather, the story of a class of 10 students. One less and the school would have been shut down.Why did the kids enroll in a Muhammadiya school? 3 reasons: first, the school charged no fees; second, the parents didn't want the devil to lead their kids astray; third, no other school would have accepted them.Muhammadiya is a reformist Islamic organization in Indonesia, not a political party, but oriented towards education and charity. Motto: do what is good and prevent what is evil.  It has 30 million members and runs thousands of schools. I know nothing negative about them, though I am not normally friendly towards religious organizations. However it is not as if they gave this school much in terms of resources... Apart from an heroical teacher, a 15 y old girl when it starts, who doesn't even get paid for the work, the school is little more than a shack.It leads a bare knuckled struggle for survival and has to stand up against the tin mine and the government.Hirata writes the former boy's memories, he does not impersonate the child that he was. We are not given pseudo childish observations, but those of an adult who looks back. That filter takes out some of the possible reservations that I might have had: there is no romancing or cutifying poverty here. There is also no whining. The tone is often humorous, and mostly practical and effective.When the adolescent boy's 'love of his life' leaves the island to go to school in Jakarta, he discovers reading for consolation (via James Herriot!) and John Lennon's quote (that I put in the review title). A John Lennon poster goes up on the class room wall next to Bruce Lee.If I need to find something to criticize, I would decide to doubt the rather extreme stories about the school's own geniuses, the artsy boy and the science wizard. Too good to be true? If it is non-fiction, we will believe it. It comes perilously near to standard underdog clichés though. It is saved by lack of sentimentality. Similarly, when the big fight against the mine's attack on the school starts, the story is in danger of drifting into kitschland. Such struggles are hard to write about in a satisfactory way.Andrea Hirata also gives us outlines of a social history of tin mining and colonialism, and the ethnic as well as the social caste structure on the island. No tale of Indonesia that is worth its salt can make do without ghosts and shamans. Superstition is deeply anchored in people's lives and minds. The mining dredges and the crocodiles are the ogres of this island.The book was so successful that Hirata gave up his job in the corporate world and became a professional writer. (Though his name suggests some kind of relation to either Italy or Japan, that doesn't seem to be the case. Indonesian names can be bewildering.)

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Charming Story
  

*by W***E on Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2013*

I really enjoyed this novel, as having lived in Indonesia, I have been to the islands of Belitong and Bangka.  Really, this story could well have taken place on any one of the thousands of small islands in Indonesia (there are 17,000 islands in Indonesia) although cultures vary somewhat from place to place.  I feel the author captured much of the simplicity yet complications of life, in what to the naked eye seems to be idyllic surroundings.  Sumatra has always been my favorite place, and I could really get the feel of these village children and their school.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    It all begins here
  

*by A***N on Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2018*

I saw an interview with the author on Japan's NKH news. They showed him walking through an Indonesian village where he was honored and recognized as that country's premier modern author.I was pleased by the novel's swift movement consisting of brief chapters. They quickly set up the locale and the heroes within who strive to learn and preserve their schoolhouse. In between the story of schoolchildren yearning for a larger life, Hirata deftly relates the tragic tale of Indonesia's tin industry. How the haves quickly set up shop, mined out the wealth from the have-nots farmland, and then received their own reality check as the novel progressed to see how the children were doing 12 years later.I understand the author wrote a number of sequels to this story as well as optioned a miniseries on the original book. Read this semi-autobiographical account and see why there are some things worth fighting for.I mean that in the conceptual sense. There is no sex or violence in this book, it is instead violence of the heart, of neglect, of greed. But there is also the hope of learning, and the power of thought. In that, the book asks the question and answers it as well as any defense of education I've ever seen. Well done.

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*Product available on Desertcart Finland*
*Store origin: FI*
*Last updated: 2026-03-16*