The Rainbow Troops

Andrea Hirata and Angie Kilbane

Penguin Books India

304 pages, Rs 399

Ikal is one of the ten students of the Muhamaddiyah School, the oldest and poorest school in the Indonesian tin-mining island of Belitong. But the school has two weapons—its teacher Bu Mus, a slight 15-year-old girl with burning courage and a passion for education, and Lintang, the boy genius who inspires his classmates to dream and fight their destiny. Soon the island’s underdogs become its champions. The Rainbow Troops swept Indonesia off its feet, selling over five million copies to become the highest-selling book in its history.