The Casuarina Tree

A collection of six stories—including the acclaimed “The Outstation”—by the renowned twentieth-century author of the classic Of Human Bondage.

Set in the Federated Malay States during the 1920s, these stories portray the lives of the English living abroad and the clashes that occur with the native Malaysians—and among themselves.

In “Before the Party,” a widow who lies about the cause of her husband’s death in Borneo is confronted by her family and blithely reveals the truth of his untimely death. “P. & O.” follows a woman sailing home to England to seek a divorce; struggling with fears of aging and loneliness, she finds a way to be at peace with herself after a fellow passenger succumbs to a mysterious illness. Though in Borneo for decades, a British Resident Officer holds tightly to English customs and traditions, but his snobbery and classism come under attack when he is saddled with a boorish new assistant in “The Outstation.”