If the characters in The Tea Lords feel real, it is because they are. The grande dame of Dutch literature, Hella S. Haasse, based her internationally acclaimed magnum opus about plantation life in the Dutch East Indies on a trove of letters and documents pulled from extensive archival research. The book follows Rudolf Kerkhoven, who finishes his studies at what is now TU Delft and moves to a remote tea plantation on Java, a place he nicknames “Eldorado”.