The Consul S File

Award-winning writer Paul Theroux takes us on a journey through small town Malaysia through the eyes of the exuberant Spencer Savage in his breathtaking novel The Consul's File. Spencer Savage, a young American consul, is posted to Ayer Hitam, a small Malaysian town, in the 1970s. Told to close down this remote outpost in the sweltering jungle, he instead finds himself drawn to the many characters he meets among the Malays, Indians, Japanese, Chinese and the clubbable expat Brits. Through his eyes we see the rich tapestry of multi-ethnic life in post-colonial Malaysia, from adultery to murder, from ghost stories to the murky waters of diplomatic politics. It is a brilliant portrait of a vanished time, a lost landscape and scattered peoples. 'A cool and witty sequence. . . a polished and professional performance' Guardian 'Theroux's writing is at its most adventurous in The Consul's File. There is no book I can compare this to: Mr Theroux's artistry is individual, serene, yet also grainy with fierce truths' The Times American travel writer Paul Theroux is known for the rich descriptions of people and places that is often streaked with his distinctive sense of irony; his novels and collected short stories, My Other Life, The Collected Stories, My Secret History, The Lower River, The Stranger at the Palazzo d'Oro, A Dead Hand, Millroy the Magician, The Elephanta Suite, Saint Jack, The Family Arsenal, The Mosquito Coast, and his works of non-fiction, including the iconic The Great Railway Bazaar are available from Penguin.

Understand the basics of the Consul server and client architecture, and learn how to apply Consul for dynamic and secure service discovery, communication, and network connectivity automation Key FeaturesDiscover how Consul servers and clients operate to facilitate primary Consul use casesLearn how Consul dynamically and securely discovers and shares service data throughout the networkUtilize Consul to extend and secure network communications across multiple operating environmentsBook Description Within the elastic and dynamic nature of cloud computing, efficient and accurate service discovery provides the cornerstone for all communications. HashiCorp Consul facilitates this service discovery efficiently and securely, independent of the operating environment. This book will help you build a solid understanding of both the concepts and applications of HashiCorp Consul. You'll begin by finding out what you can do with Consul, focusing on the conceptual views of configuration samples along with Terraform code to expedite lab environment and hands-on experimentation, which will enable you to apply Consul effectively in your everyday lives. As you advance, you'll learn how to set up your own Consul cluster and agents in a single datacenter or location and understand how Consul utilizes RAFT and GOSSIP protocols for communication. You'll also explore the practical applications of primary Consul use cases, including communication flows and configuration and code examples. With that knowledge, you'll extend Consul across datacenters to discuss the applicability of multiple regions, multiple clouds, and hybrid cloud environments. By the end of this Consul book, you will have the tools needed to create and operate your own Consul cluster and be able to facilitate your service discovery and communication. What you will learnDeploy and configure a highly available multi-node Consul architectureImplement Consul service discovery across multiple servicesUtilize Consul to monitor and communicate service health statusConnect services securely across a range of environmentsLeverage your knowledge of the Consul service to automate network infrastructureExtend your Consul knowledge and connectivity across multiple environmentsWho this book is for If you are a solutions architect, DevOps engineer, or anyone new to the cloud-native framework looking to get started with using Consul, then this book is for you. Knowledge of Terraform is helpful but not necessary. A basic understanding of networking and Kubernetes systems will help you get the most out of this book.