Publications on Timor-Leste

This is a selection of books available on Timor-Leste. Please send your recommendations to the TLSA website by email: admin@tlstudies.org

"Hatene kona ba/Compreender/Understanding/Mengerti Timor-Leste" Edited by Michael Leach, Nuno Canas Mendes, Antero B. da Silva, Alarico da Costa Ximenes and Bob Boughton. Hawthorn: Swinburne Press, 328pp. AU$30

The papers in this eduted and refereed volume were first presented at the Timor-Leste Studies Association's Understanding Timor-Leste conference (UNTL, Dili, 2-3 July 2009). Papers in the collection are divided into four language sections (Tetum-Dili, Portuguese, English and Bahasa Indonesia), along with a special section on Adult and Popular education.

Click here to view the table of contents.
To order a hardcopy dowload an order form  in word or pdf.
To download the whole book or individual chapters click here.

"A Childhood Fighting for East Timor" by Naldo Rei. University of Queensland Press, ISBN 9780702236327. AU$34.95

An unforgettable story of courage and survival.

I am by myself, a little boy squatting outside the cave where we are in hiding, looking up at the surrounding hama trees, their roots fiercely grabbing the earth, their trunks as solid as the ancestors … East Timor has become a land of martyrs and warriors, growing like hama trees in the soil of resistance, and the stones and earth are the shoulders on which we stand. I am proud of those who give their lives for our land and people, and fight to defend our rights. Can I become like them, I ask myself, and follow in their footsteps?

Naldo Rei was just six months old when Indonesia invaded East Timor in December 1975. He spent the first three years of his life in the jungle, where his family had fled for safety. After his father was murdered for his work in the resistance movement, nine-year-old Naldo was recruited by the clandestine Fretilin network and began his own extraordinary journey fighting for East Timor’s freedom. Throughout his teenage years, Naldo was imprisoned and tortured regularly for his covert resistance to the brutal Indonesian regime. Eventually, in too much danger to remain in his homeland, he escaped to Australia for several years. Now living in an independent East Timor, Naldo Rei can tell his incredible story. His life is proof that no amount of danger and loss can crush the human spirit.

"East Timor: Beyond Independence" Edited by Damien Kingsbury and Michael Leach, Monash University Press, ISBN 978 1 876924 49 2
rrp AU$36.95 Paperback, 320pp, page size C5 229 x 162mm

This is the most comprehensive study of East Timor since independence, examining the major themes of development, borders and security, politics and justice, resource and land management, education, and language policy. Though the country was initially lauded as a case study in successful state-building, the crisis of 2006 demonstrated that East Timor had more in common with other post-colonial, post-conflict societies than some of these earlier optimistic assessments suggested.

East Timor continues to attract the interest and attention of governments, scholars, development institutions and aid workers as a society rebuilding itself after almost a quarter of a century of profound trauma, and consecutive eras of colonialism. Covering the era from the independence referendum in August 1999 to the political crisis in 2006, and future prospects and challenges, this book is an invaluable resource for understanding the challenges facing the first new nation of the 21st century.

"EAST TIMOR: A Country at the Crossroads of Asia and the Pacific
A Geo-historical Atlas" by Frederic Durand. (Silkworm Books, 2006)
ISBN-13: 978-974-9575-98-7; ISBN-10: 974-9575-98-9
198pp, 290x210mm, full-color maps throughout

This atlas highlights the specific features and characteristics of the new country of East Timor. Using statistical documentary resources available since the colonial period, its 136 colorful maps show how material constraints and local, regional, and world stakes have shaped Timor's destiny, both past and present.

Frederic Durand teaches geography at Toulouse Il-Le Mirail University, France. Author of several works on Southeast Asia, the Malay world, and Indonesia, he published the French version of this geo-historical atlas of East Timor in 2002, and the book, Catholicisme et Protestantisme dans lle de Timor: 1556-2003, in 2004.

"New Nation: United Nations Peace-Building in East Timor" by Geoffrey C. Gunn and Reyko Huang. (Macau, 2006) ISBN 9993770612

The first comprehensive study of United Nations peacebuilding in East Timor from May 1999 to the end of the UNMISET mission in 2006. Drawing upon direct involvement in key institutional sectors through various phases of the UN institutional process, the authors bring to bear on the subject a multidisciplinary approach drawing upopn anthropology, sociology, political science and international relations theory.

Now available from Gleebooks (Sydney), AETA (Melbourne and Sydney), ETAN (US), Select Books (Singapore), Livraria Portuguesa (Macau, China) and Amazon.com.

"Timor-Leste: Land of Discovery" is a beautiful book that showcases photographs by Daniel J.Groshong (as featured on this website), a testament to the beauty of the land and the people of the nation of Timor-Leste. "Timor-Leste: Land of Discovery" can be purchased via the Tayo Photogroup website.

"East Timor: Development Challenges for the World's Newest Nation" edited by Hal Hill and Joao Saldanha, published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, (Singapore) - ISBN 978-981-230-141-3, US$36.90 hard cover.