It’s honestly not an easy book to make a review of, not because I’ve never heard of the writers before, nor is it because I wasn’t aware of its existence (I blame it on my lack of exposure to publishers other than the major ones). It’s simply because Rahasia Salinem is just too good to start to … [Read more...]
‘Hunting for Muhammad’: Feby Indirani seeks to transcend political polarization
January 25, 2021 by
Feby Indirani has distinguished herself as an author who is capable of presenting the lives of Indonesian Muslims through an intimate and sympathetic eye. Although her short stories, particularly the ones published in her debut anthology Bukan Perawan Maria (Not the Virgin Mary, 2017), also tackle … [Read more...]
The Book of Jakarta
January 23, 2021 by
‘The heart of the city was still beating, even though it’s body had been paralysed’. I’ve always wondered what it meant to describe a city as being ‘alive’. Off the top of my head I think of a pre-pandemic Friday night in Soho! But what gives a city its energy, its lifeblood, its power; what … [Read more...]
“Sitti Nurbaja”: Some reconsiderations
January 17, 2021 by
Marah Rusli's novel Sitti Nurbaja was published first by Balai Pustaka in. 1922. It was by far the most popular of Indonesian novels prior to the second world war and still retained a great deal of popularity after it. This is common knowledge. That it is also a novel which has, as yet, not had its … [Read more...]
Sitti Nurbaya
January 17, 2021 by
Sitti Nurbaya -- Nurbaya, also called Nur, is the teenage heroine of the story; 'Sitti' a not-age-specific female honorific (i.e. -- but not quite -- both 'Miss' and 'Ma'am') -- is subtitled: A Love Unrealized, which kind of gives away where this story is headed. From its beginning, Sitti … [Read more...]
