THE MALDIVES

JJ Robinson

In 2008, an activist and politician named Mohamed Nasheed brought to a sudden end the Maldives’s autocratic regime led by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, until then Asia’s longest-serving dictator. But democracy brought violence and intense political polarisation, and the ousted dictatorship overthrew Nasheed’s government in 2012. A first-hand investigation of the seamy politics underpinning a renowned tourist destination, this book demonstrates how the fight for democracy in the Maldives is just beginning.

Hurst, 336 pages, £16.99