Book review: Maldives: Kingdom of a Thousand Isles (2004), by Andrew Forbes, ****

Cemetery on a Maldivian island

Precious little is written on the Maldives besides guide books on posh resorts. This book goes a long way toward filling that gap. The author is well read on the subject and has spent considerable time travelling around the archipelago. He provides fairly exhaustive historical and cultural analyses.

He is a bit weaker on political and economic aspects. In addition to the main body of the book, he reprints a series of essays he has previously published in many journals and newspapers over the years. These are usually interesting and relevant, and do add to the book. However they are collated in a sometimes haphazard fashion. The reader is sometimes thrown off balance as he moves from one topic to another. I would say this book is more of a reference work, to go back to for detailed information, with a good index and bibliography with suggested further reading, than a book to be read from cover to cover.

Many good pictures add a lot to the book, which is printed in sturdy heavy paper and bound for durability.