Kidnapped from Java, five year-old Mirah is taken to the Banda islands. Mirah of Banda reads like a personal account: from her life in a nutmeg plantation during the Dutch colonial era, the Japanese occupation, and the Indonesian revolution era. Mirah’s story is told to an Australian who visits the family Mirah works for as a cook and her myriad experiences include her life as a contracted nutmeg picker and the plantation owner’s concubine. The fate of her daughter Lili, when she is taken away to become a “comfort woman” for Japanese soldiers, is even more heartbreaking.

Translated by: Toni Pollard