I highly recommend the Indonesian writer Budi Darma's People from Bloomington, a collection of short stories newly translated by Tiffany Tsao. Like Darma, I attended graduate school in Bloomington, a beautiful, idyllic college town in Indiana, so I was curious about this book. Although as a … [Read more...]
‘Happy Stories, Mostly’ wins Republic of Consciousness Prize
May 18, 2022 by
In the UK, Indonesian writer Norman Erikson Pasaribu and his publisher Tilted Axis Press have won this year’s Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses, for Pasaribu’s short story collection Happy Stories, Mostly. Tanslated by Sydney-based writer and translator Tiffany Tsao, Happy … [Read more...]
Indiana Absurd
May 18, 2022 by
The late Budi Darma, one of Indonesia’s most beloved writers, spent a formative chapter of his life far from home, studying at Indiana University in the 1970s. He wrote a series of strikingly lonely short stories that would go on to form the collection People from Bloomington, first published in … [Read more...]
The Girl from The Coast (1987) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, a Peasant Girl Turned an Aristocratic Wife
May 18, 2022 by
GABY RUSLI WRITES (in her ongoing series on classic Indonesian literature) — Through versatility and natural eloquence, Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s, The Girl From The Coast (1987), took a seemingly simple story based on the author’s grandmother’s life into a complex metaphor that simultaneously … [Read more...]
Twilight in Djakarta (1963) by Mochtar Lubis, an Indonesian’s Letter to His Failing Country
May 18, 2022 by
GABY RUSLI WRITES (in a series of reviews on Indonesian classics) — Corruption. Collusion. Nepotism. The hypocrisy of the wealthy. All odds are stacked against the poor. These are some of the authentic and intriguing themes in Mochtar Lubis’ third novel, Twilight in Djakarta (1963). Lubis’ story … [Read more...]
