Oeroeg

About “Oeroeg”

Oeroeg is the first novel by Hella Haasse, published anonymously in 1948. It is a Bildungsroman set in the Dutch East Indies, following the life of an anonymous narrator who grows up on a plantation in West Java. His childhood friend is a native boy of the same age, but as the narrator matures, he becomes distant due to the racial and political tensions of colonial life. After serving in the army during World War II, he returns to the colony but is told he does not belong there and must leave. The novel is one of the best-known Dutch works and is widely taught in schools. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.)