It was supposed to be his dream job. Mark Bowling, a foreign correspondent with the respected Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was assigned to cover Indonesia. His arrival in Jakarta coincided with the downfall of President Suharto after more than three decades in power. So began a four-year roller-coaster ride for a journalist covering a nation s descent into turmoil. Mark was not alone on this posting. His wife Kim and their two young children moved with him from Australia to Jakarta, and had to settle into a very different life there.



Mark's book is a uniquely personal exploration of the rich but frenetic life of a foreign correspondent. At times his days swung out of control as he juggled news story deadlines with commitments to his young family.



Mark Bowling describes the political upheavals with the immediacy of a journalist who was in the centre of the action, and he writes with honesty and warmth about the personal aspects of being a foreign correspondent and father in a country undergoing extraordinary change.