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...]

Through the Mad Tea Book Club, I’ve been so pleased to meet more Indonesian readers and writers (especially women writers). One author I have really enjoyed reading is Firnita. She has two books published by Pop and Ice Cube: Strings Attached (2020), and Shorter Stories (2021). Twitter Lift I … [Read more...]