“Try to count them, I dare you,” Tempo veteran journalist and author Leila S. Chudori responded in protest over an assertion that fictional stories on the 1965 coup and subsequent killings of members and sympathisers of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) were trending. “People said there were … [Read more...]

The New Zealand Festival's Reader and Writer's section is a chance to see some of your favourite authors and find many new ones. A very new author - at least to English language fiction is Indonesian writer Intan Paramaditha. Intan is a media and film lecturer at Sydney's Macquarie University … [Read more...]

Mars Noersmono might have a lean physique, grey hair and slightly trembling hands, but the 78-year-old remains strong, despite the soft tone of his speech suggesting otherwise. “Sorry, I can’t speak at length without breathing properly,” he said during a discussion of his book Bertahan Hidup di … [Read more...]

Fans of Ahmad Fuadi’s work can now add his newly released book, Anak Rantau (Wandering Kid), to their bookshelf. It has been four years since Ahmad Fuadi’s last book, Rantau 1 Muara (The Estuary of Wander), was published. Rantau 1 Muara was the last book to complete Fuadi’s well-known Negeri 5 … [Read more...]

Home to the world’s largest Muslim population, Indonesia is feared to be turning more conservative, many believe, after the sentencing of former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, or Ahok, on charges of blasphemy, which he denied. While that fear might be true if one looks at the political … [Read more...]