The Rainbow Troops

An irresistible tale of hope and daring, The Rainbow Troops follows Ikal, a student at the poorest village school on the Indonesian island of Belitong, where graduating from sixth grade is considered remarkable. When his school is threatened with closure by a monolithic bureaucracy, Ikal and is friends - the Rainbow Troops - band together to challenge corporations and skeptical officials with the help of two teachers who join the students in their struggle against an indifferent world.

When The Rainbow Troops, Andrea Hirata's autobiographical novel, was published in Indonesia in 2005, it shattered records, becoming the bestselling novel in the country's history. With trepidation and optimism, this book promises to do for Indonesia what Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner did for Afghanistan: guide us through the colorful history and stubborn hopes of people we might never have known - but whose stories we won't soon forget.