The paradise parable

For Indian readers, Descent into Paradise should serve as a meaningful resource to stray away from the polarising and diverging monster that social media has become

Descent into Paradise: A Journalist’s Memoir of the Untold Maldives

Author: Daniel Bosley

Publisher: Macmillan, an imprint of Pan Macmillan

Pages: 410

Price: Rs 699

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Most people would find it difficult to think of the Maldives, which recently held parliamentary elections, beyond its image as a go-to travel destination for honeymooners. Who, anyway, would like to imagine the archipelagic paradise as home to limited freedom of expression, frequent murders and kidnappings of journalists, police crackdowns, and coups and coerced resignations by politicians? Additionally, problematise the situation by these facts — more than 80 per cent of its 1,200-plus coral islands stand “less