In Felix Nesi’s debut novel, residents of West Timor grapple with violence, religious and political power, and inner turmoil

Indonesia. Unless you are Indonesian by birth or marriage, the name might conjure images of peaceful havens in Bali, stunning batik textiles, or the aroma of premium coffee. Felix Nesi is determined to change this. Nesi is a rising Indonesian novelist and short-story writer who draws on his West Timorese roots to interrogate themes like religion and power in a way that is both culturally specific and universally relevant. His debut novel, Orang-orang Oetimu, won the Jakarta Arts Council Novel Competition in 2018 and was recently released in the United States under the title People from Oetimu, translated by Lara Norgaard. Nesi’s decision to position his fiction in his native West Timor rather than Indonesia’s political and cultural center, Java, is also a notable marker in the diversification of contemporary Indonesian literary voices.