What to read about Indonesia
There’s much more to the country than Bali’s beaches, as these six books demonstrate
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to take in the result of Indonesia’s election.
INDONESIA HAS been called the biggest invisible country. It is the world’s fourth most populous. With more than 13,000 islands, it is the biggest archipelago. Yet few outsiders know much about it except that one of its islands, Bali, has nice beaches. Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population, but it is almost bewilderingly diverse. Islam is just one of six officially recognised religions. The country’s 280m people belong to around 1,300 ethnic groups and speak more than 700 languages. The Indonesian language itself uses words from English, Arabic, Dutch, Portuguese, Malay and several Chinese dialects.
Explore more
From the February 17th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from The Economist reads
Five novels that imagine dictatorship in America
A gripping way into thinking about democracy under threat
Understand South Korea, a success story with a dark side
Five books and a film that explain why the country is a cultural superpower as well as an economic one
These books reveal why the brain is the biggest mystery of all
Eight of the best books on brains and consciousness—human, octopus and other