Sang Raja

Iksaka Banu is widely known for his historical fiction, most of which are set during the Dutch colonial era in the East Indies before Indonesia gained its independence and became a sovereign country. Sang Raja, first published by Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia in 2017, is one of those. Focusing on a vastly, and fastly, growing cigarette business in Central Java this time, Mr. Banu makes the most of his resources, researches and writing skill to present a magnificent, based-on-a-true-story novel about the king (sang raja in English) of cigarettes who saw not only the ups and downs of his business kingdom, but also the Dutch’s losing grip on his homeland and the coming and going of the Japanese toward Indonesian independence in 1945.