This week sees the latest staging of the Frankfurt Book Fair, and 2015’s guest of honour is Indonesia, a country which is currently a blank on my literary explorers map. In honour of the event, then, I’ve decided to devote the week to Indonesian fiction, with three reviews of books by Indonesian … [Read more...]

This week sees the latest staging of the Frankfurt Book Fair, and 2015’s guest of honour is Indonesia, a country which is currently a blank on my literary explorers map. In honour of the event, then, I’ve decided to devote the week to Indonesian fiction, with three reviews of books by Indonesian … [Read more...]

Eka Kurniawan’s novel Beauty is a Wound—first published in Indonesian in 2002, but only now available in English translation—has a wonderfully memorable opening line: One afternoon on a weekend in May, Dewi Ayu rose from her grave after being dead for twenty-one years. Kurniawan has frequently … [Read more...]

Excerpt Indonesian journalist and activist Goenawan Mohamad's essays reveal insights into a country plagued with corruption. What is a man who loves his country to do when his homeland is plagued with corruption and oppression, when it carries the scars of a bloody past, and when - even now - … [Read more...]

The Rape of Sukreni is set in Bali, mainly in the outback town of Bingin Banjah -- "little more than a cluster of peasants' home" when the story begins. It is, however surrounded by coconut groves, and so Men Nagara has a steady supply of customers for her stall, selling the plantation workers food … [Read more...]