Sarongge

A love story set against a backdrop of meticulously researched true events in Indonesia’s recent environmental history. Each chapter in the novel begins with a detailed description of an endemic flora and the whole book is infused with the author’s passion for his country’s environmental wealth and the vital importance of its preservation. Through the activism of its female protagonist, Karen, readers traverse the country and gain insights into the devastating results of deforestation on some of the world’s last remaining rainforests, as well as the frequently negative impact of development on natural resources and the rights of indigenous peoples. The struggles of life in the rural hamlet of Sarongge, the setting for much of the story, is told through the eyes of Husin, Karen’s lover and is loosely based on the author’s own work with the local farming community there. Both fighting in their different ways to preserve nature, the two lovers offer role models for those seeking to make a difference despite sometimes seemingly insuperable odds.

First published by Dian Rakyat in 2012. The second edition is due to be published in 2017 by Indie Book Corner. The English translation will be published in the Lontar Modern Indonesian Fiction Series in 2017.