“In a strange way, what I read coincided with what I was. I read about the raging sea as the sea raged, I read about the whispering forest as the forest whispered, and when I read that to pray was not to speak, but to become silent, that only in silence could God’s kingdom be sought, God’s kingdom … [Read more...]

The fascinating story of how Indonesia came to better know itself through a time of repressive regimes. Australia’s relationships with Indonesia are usually measured through stories of terror and disaster, aid and trade, rarely anything that’s cerebral. That’s been corrected by writer Max Lane … [Read more...]

I was there, on the Indonesian Book Twitter community, when this book dropped. It was freshly baked, and everyone in my timeline seemed to pre-ordered it together and read it immediately. Not me, though. It took me months after its release to buy this book. Mainly because 1) I have this … [Read more...]

Another short story collection review! This one comes from an Indonesian author, Norman Erikson Pasaribu; it has been translated to English in 2021 by Tiffany Tsao, and was longlisted in The 2022 International Booker Prize, also won The Republic of Consciousness Prize in 2022: Cerita-cerita Bahagia, … [Read more...]

Tjong (2022) is Herry Gendut Janarto’s second novel and takes as its main character a totok (Chinese-born) Chinese Indonesian, Tjong Kei Lin, born to an impoverished family in Guangzhou, China.  In the first novel Yogya Yogya (2020), the main character, Gayuh is a peranakan Chinese (locally born), … [Read more...]