Sukanta’s first volume in this trilogy, Threads of Dignity, allows the reader to see and feel such a reality, and to learn how one’s inner resources can be called upon to deal with such a situation on a day-to-day basis. The author draws on his years of imprisonment to recount the harrowing life in … [Read more...]
Suddenly the Night
April 2, 2022 by
Suddenly the Night is an collection of poetry by Sapardi Djoko Damono, one of Indonesia's preeminent poets. As is stated in the introduction to the book, "More than any other contemprary Indonesian poet, Sapardi realizes that poetry is more than convention and that convention is not necessarily a … [Read more...]
Rejection: A Sumatran Odyssey
March 19, 2022 by
Rejection: A Sumatran Odyssey is an epic family drama by Ashadi Siregar set against the turbulent years following Indonesia’s independence. The story follows Tondi who as a young man joins the separatist rebellion of the late 1950s and early 1960s in North Sumatra. Later he moves to Java and finds … [Read more...]
Happy Stories, Mostly
January 10, 2022 by
Playful, shape-shifting and emotionally charged, Happy Stories, Mostly is a collection of twelve stories that queer the norm. Inspired by Simone Weil’s concept of ‘decreation’, and often drawing on Batak and Christian cultural elements, these tales put queer characters in situations and plots … [Read more...]
People from Bloomington
July 25, 2021 by
An eerie, alienating, yet comic and profoundly sympathetic short story collection about Americans in America by one of Indonesia’s most prominent writers, now in an English translation for its fortieth anniversary, with a foreword by Intan Paramaditha. In these seven stories of The People from … [Read more...]