People from Oetimu

A masterful debut for fans of Salman Rushdie, Gabriel García Márquez, and Namwali Serpell from an equally ambitious, political, form-breaking writer

Effortlessly capturing complex historical events, this hypnotizing debut novel introduces readers to a writer at the forefront of Indonesian literature.

In 1998, men living on the border between West and East Timor are gathering at the police station to watch the World Cup. They train their eyes on Brazilian superstar Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima, urging him to step it up and beat the French. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, political insurgents are in the process of invading the village, with plans to kill.

From there, Felix K. Nesi’s formidable debut novel cycles backward in time, to the independence movements against Portuguese rule in the 1970s, the period of Japanese occupation in the 1940s, before returning to the events of 1998. The pain of years of domination and violent conflict recurs.

Nesi’s eye for the absurd brings a levity to the bureaucratic acrobatics, European officials who think themselves invincible, and macho charades all get flipped on their heads. His diverse source material – articles in newspapers, fables circulated in Timor’s robust oral tradition – lend themselves to a propulsive narrative power.

Combining humor and history, pathos and hijinks, People from Oétimu is an intoxicating reading experience.