The Rescue by Joseph Conrad (Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski)

Conrad's first book (Almayer's Folly) and his second (An outcast of the Islands) were situated in Borneo and the Indonesian archipelago. His third book was to have been the work that later came to be known as The Rescue, but which it took Conrad more than 20 years to complete. Together, these three works are known as Conrad's Malay trilogy.
Conrad wrote his Malay trilogy from the wrong end, so to speak; that is, his first (Almayer) takes place latest in time and the last (The Rescue) tells of the earliest beginnings.