Beloved Land

At the stroke of midnight on 20 May 2002, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste became the first new nation of the 21st century. From that moment, those who fought for independence have faced a challenge even bigger than shaking off Indonesian occupation: running a country of their own.

Beloved Land picks up the story where world attention left off. Blending narrative history, travelogue, and personal reminiscences based on four years of living in the country, Gordon Peake shows the daunting hurdles that the people of Timor-Leste must overcome to build a nation from scratch, and how much the international community has to learn if it is to help rather than hinder the process. Family politics, squabbles, power struggles, old romances, and even older grudges are woven into life in this land of intrigue and rumours in the most remarkable ways.

Yet above all, Beloved Land is a story about the one million East Timorese who speak nearly 20 different languages, and who are exuberantly building their nation. Written with verve and deep affection, the book introduces a set of colourful Timorese and international characters, and brings them to life unforgettably.

Limited edition copies of “Beloved Land” are currently available from the shop page.

The reader gets a sense of a complex nation where history is a layer cake, with the past always present.

– Jenny Tabakoff, The Courier Mail

“Beloved Land” is a clear-eyed and critical love letter to Timor-Leste. It’s also a survival manual for bewildered malae (foreigners) in this complex and resilient nation.

– Sian Prior

Besides being a political diagnosis, it’s an absorbing piece of travel writing, vivid and full of well-turned character sketches ... the mixture of forthrightness and warmth, and knowledge, makes this book not simply informative but in a quiet way exemplary.

– Owen Richardson, The Saturday Age

Gordon Peake has written a brilliant, serendipitous book about Timor-Leste that is the best work on the subject in recent times. His critical approach and laconic wit spare no personalities, from UN bureaucrats to Timorese high-flyers, who would do well to read and heed this work.

– Jill Jolliffe