Someone asked me if the book was about love story, unrequited one or something like that. I said no way. It was much more deep and personal than that. /laugh/ I actually cannot read poetry book that is too cliche. I read the three books of Lang Leav. Eventhough I finished it all but I just skimmed … [Read more...]

Despite the efforts of organisations like the The Lontar Foundation, and the position of guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair a couple of years back, Indonesian literature as a whole hasn’t really made much of a splash in translation.  However, one writer who has had some success is Eka … [Read more...]

Eka Kurniawan was the first Indonesian writer long-listed for the Man Booker International, and he continues to be translated into English as his star rises. There isn't much else rising, however, in this novel, which focuses on its antihero's flaccid penis. Ajo Kiwar witnessed the rape of a widow … [Read more...]

There’s a novel that I have been encountering again and again on Amazon – Beauty is a Wound by Indonesian writer Eka Kurniawan (Website, Facebook). An article on The Economistfrom July 2017 calls him “Indonesia’s finest novelist”. For his use of magic realism and surrealism, he is frequently … [Read more...]

Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is the third Eka Kurniawan novel to be published in English (all by Speaking Tiger in India). The first, the magical realist family epic Beauty is a Wound, was rapidly acclaimed as an Indonesian answer to One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Kurniawan has become … [Read more...]