10 Excellent Books Set in Bali: Unveiling the Island’s Literary Magic

The Painted Alphabet – Diana Darling

Magic, depravity, spiritual ambition, sensuality, and love — The Painted Alphabet binds mythic and modern time together in a rich, slyly suggestive novel based on an old Balinese poem. In a fresh and startling picture of Bali — where witches coexist with tourists and talking animals — the novel explores a kaleidoscope of vanity, desire, and the longing for goodness among books set in Bali.

Bali Raw – Malcolm Scott

What’s it like to live in Bali full time and what do you need to do to survive in a supercharged party environment. Bali Belly the survival guide takes the reader behind the scenes and it shows them how to get by when holidaying or living in Indonesia’s number one holiday island Bali. An interesting one among books set in Bali.

Shadow of the Moon – M. M. Kaye

While primarily set in India, this historical novel features a captivating section in Bali among books set in Bali. M. M. Kaye, author of The Far Pavilions, sweeps her readers back to the vast, glittering, sunbaked continent of India. Shadow of the Moon is the story of Winter de Ballesteros, a beautiful English heiress who has come to India to be married. It is also the tale of Captain Alex Randall, her escort and protector, who knows that Winter’s husband-to-be has become a debauched wreck of a man.

When India bursts into flaming hatreds and bitter bloodshed during the dark days of the Mutiny, Alex and Winter are thrown unwillingly together in the brutal and urgent struggle for survival.

The Bali Mystery – Linda Weaver Clarke

A cosy mystery among books set in Bali. Amelia Moore, the founder of the Moore Detective Agency, specializes in missing persons. Her cases have taken her to some interesting places and put her in some dangerous situations, but she always solves the case. With the help of Rick Bonito, her business is flourishing. When Mrs. Brody hires Amelia and Rick to find her missing brother, they find themselves in Bali, Indonesia. They are mystified why her brother quit his job, put his home up for sale, and ran off to this mysterious and exotic island without telling a soul.

Love and Death in Bali – Vicki Baum

In Love and Death in Bali, renowned author Vicki Baum skillfully intermeshes several different narratives that all culminate in the infamous puputan (the “ending”), the slaughter and mass suicides that brought the old Bali to an end in 1906. Written within living memory of these bloody events, the book tells the story of the passionate and deeply spiritual people who defy Dutch imperial forces through an act that brings them certain death–and certain rebirth among books set in Bali.

The looting of a Chinese trading ship gives the Dutch colonial forces the perfect excuse to intervene in island affairs, but they encounter astonishing resistance. In the battle of Badung, wave upon wave of Balinese clothed in white ceremonial garb charge into the blazing Dutch guns, kris daggers in hand, prepared to die. Who among them will survive, and how will their lives be forever changed?

Balilicious – Becky Wicks

A lot can happen when you set out to ‘find yourself’. Sometimes, you can even lose the plot. From visiting ancient healers with cellphone addictions to leaving a shaking ashram intent on extracting her soul, Becky Wicks soon discovered that six months travelling around Bali wasn’t all going to be about finding inner peace and harmony.

In fact, the perils of possessed teens, eating raw, yogic headstands, diving shipwrecks and dicing with black magic and demons all took their toll on the Island of the Gods. And that was before the vaginal steaming. Becky Wicks lifts the sarong on real life in Bali in a blur of locals, tourists, expats and other eating, praying lovers who arrive… you know… not really knowing who they are. A fun one among books set in Bali.