After Man Tiger and Beauty Is a Wound, the third work by the literary sensation to be translated into English is an unflinching examination of physical and sexual violence. Eka Kurniawan first ignited international interest in 2015, with the English translation of his 2004 novel, Man Tiger. By … [Read more...]
Eka Kurniawan’s brutal novel on Indonesian masculinity is not for the faint-hearted
August 6, 2017 by
Eka Kurniawan: Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash
August 6, 2017 by
This is the third novel in translation from Eka Kurniawan, an Indonesian wunderkind whose Beauty Is a Wound was an unlikely smash in 2015 and was followed the same year by Man Tiger, which made the Man Booker International Prize longlist in 2016. Both books were noteworthy for their quality, but … [Read more...]
Riding high: The secrets of Indonesia’s finest novelist
July 14, 2017 by
Eka Kurniawan’s books are characterised by bold ideas and a rambunctious energy. EKA KURNIAWAN’S hugely inventive fiction is a potent blend of grounded realism and flighty fantasy. It has led some to describe him as Indonesia’s finest writer since Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who died in 2006. “Beauty … [Read more...]
Twilight in Jakarta by Mochtar Lubis
July 2, 2017 by
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...]
