Books

Longlisted for the prestigious Man Booker International Prize Eka Kurniawan’s novel signals the birth of a sophisticated crime noir genre in Indonesian literature

A series of illustrated books offers a visual journey through the history of Jakarta and brings back vivid memories

Conspiracy as foreign policy

Like Toer’s tetralogy before it, Semua Untuk Hindia turns Indonesia’s national history narrative on its head

Cancellations at UWRF 2015 were just the latest example of censorship in democratic Indonesia

Introduction to Man Tiger: A Novel by Eka Kurniawan

An emerging poet takes the international stage

Ongoing impunity for perpetrators continues to impact on the lives of women survivors

Saskia Wieringa’s latest novel brings to life a dark period in Indonesia’s past

Indonesia, beginning of the 1980s. The young journalist Tommy comes into contact with the survivors of the genocide that the New Order regime of General Suharto carried out. To her bewilderment she hears stories about lurid dancing, castrations and the murder by young girls of a number of generals in the night of October 1 1965.  Guided by Ibu Sri, herself a former prisoner and a member of the women’s organisation that was held responsible for these alleged sexual and sadistic perversions she sets herself the task to unravel these fantasies.  Who invented these hateful lies which were meant to incite mass organizations to murder possibly one million of their neighbors?  Tommy is betrayed and thrown into prison. 

Indonesian novels about 1965 reach back to the Mahabharata to find hope and resignation 

Lontar Publishing’s John McGlynn speaks with Petia Dimitrova about the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair 2015 at which Indonesia is the Guest of Honour nation and about the challenges of publishing Indonesian literature in translation

Translations of Indonesian literature offer insights into both the universality and particularity of Indonesian culture and society

Nils Bubandt brings an exciting new approach to the study of Indonesia's politics

Julia Byl’s ethnographic study reveals a musical tradition formed by its interactions with other cultures and musical influences  

Arguably Indonesia's finest living writer of fiction, Putu Wijaya reflects on Indonesia's nationhood in his short story, 'Freedom'.

Popular forms of writing in public reveal the richness of Balinese revitalisation

The world of lontar will likely continue side by side with the new technologies of our digital age

Reincarnations of works by the great Indonesian comic artists challenge manga’s dominance

The story of Indonesian literature is a fragmenting journey from national myth to bewildering multiplication