{"product_id":"9789814625272","title":"Olivia \u0026 Sophia","description":"\u003cp\u003eSet in London, Java, Sumatra, Penang, Malacca and Singapore, this historical novel\n\u003cbr\u003etakes the form of two diaries of Sir Stamford Raffles’ two wives: Olivia and Sophia.\n\u003cbr\u003eWhen Raffles sets sail from the cold, damp confines of Georgian London\n\u003cbr\u003eto make his name and fortune in the tropics, he takes with him his new\n\u003cbr\u003ewife, Olivia, a raffish beauty with a scandalous past. She infatuates both his\n\u003cbr\u003eclosest friend, a poet, and one of his bitterest rivals, a soldier. Raffles sees\n\u003cbr\u003ewhat is going on, but he turns a blind eye – or so hopes Olivia.\n\u003cbr\u003eAfter Olivia’s death, and back on leave in London, Raffles, a man once\n\u003cbr\u003eagain in need of a wife, makes a practical marriage. Sophia, no beauty, but\n\u003cbr\u003ecurious and intelligent, embraces the opportunity of an exciting life abroad.\n\u003cbr\u003eMarriage brings her great joy but also great sadness. Her life with Raffles\n\u003cbr\u003ebecomes a catalogue of loss: of their children, of their possessions, of their\n\u003cbr\u003esavings.\n\u003cbr\u003eAnd all the while, Raffles, driven and talented, manoeuvres at the centre\n\u003cbr\u003eof global networks of power, trade, politics and diplomacy. His scheming\n\u003cbr\u003eculminates, to his eventual glory, with the founding of a new trading post:\n\u003cbr\u003eSingapore.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Monsoon Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48235612700907,"sku":"EB_LI0708_B01-01_RC","price":20.17,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0758\/4484\/5803\/files\/9789814625272-1.jpg?v=1786097833","url":"https:\/\/kinokuniya.com.sg\/ja\/products\/9789814625272","provider":"Books Kinokuniya Singapore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}