Twilight in Jakarta is a vivid and compassionate dissection of the social and political life of Jakarta in the formative years after independence. This important book reveals the dark currents of poverty, corruption and vice which course just beneath the surface of one of the great cities of the … [Read more...]
Paper Boats by Dee Lestari
June 5, 2017 by
Paper Boats begins in the summer of 1999, Keenan headed back to Indonesia to start university, after spending his teen years with his grandmother in Amsterdam. He goes to study in Bandung, joining his cousin, Eko, and Eko's girlfriend, Noni; he is also immediately introduced to Noni's best friend, … [Read more...]
The Modern Folktales of Jakarta
June 5, 2017 by
The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo, said Desmond Morris, a zoologist. This statement viewed cities with an emphasis on its people rather than its structures. However, which focus does it want to emphasise? The myriad variety of its people? Or the confines of city life, like a zoo, … [Read more...]
2014: Not a Good Year for Indonesian Short Story Scene
June 5, 2017 by
For a selection of short story, this book is quite inconsistent; there must be quite a number of editors involved in selecting these short stories. The best short story (voted by editors) is a story by Faisal Oddang called Di Tubuh Tarra, dalam Rahim Pohon (In Tarra’s Body, In the Womb of the … [Read more...]
Drought by Iwan Simatupang
May 26, 2017 by
For more than 100 years, the Indonesian government’s solution to overpopulation was the magic cure-all transmigrasi, first instituted by the Dutch in 1905. Transmigration involves relocating people from densely populated “inner islands” such as Java, Bali and Lombok to more sparsely populated … [Read more...]