Minke is a young Javanese student of great intelligence and ambition. Living equally among the colonists and colonized of 19th-century Java, he battles against the confines of colonial strictures. It is his love for Annelies that enables him to find the strength to embrace his world.

This Earth of Mankind (Buru Quartet, #1)

Declaring independence in 1945, Indonesia said it would "work out the details of the transfer of power etc. as soon as possible." With over 300 ethnic groups spread across over 13,500 islands, the world’s fourth most populous nation has been working on that "etc." ever since. Author Elizabeth Pisani traveled 26,000 miles in search of the links that bind this disparate nation.

Indonesia, Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation

The epic novel "Beauty Is a Wound" combines history, satire, family tragedy, legend, humor, and romance in a sweeping polyphony. The beautiful Indo prostitute Dewi Ayu and her four daughters are beset by incest, murder, bestiality, rape, insanity, monstrosity, and the often vengeful undead. Kurniawan's gleefully grotesque hyperbole functions as a scathing critique of his young nation's troubled past: the rapacious offhand greed of colonialism; the chaotic struggle for independence; the 1965 mass murders of perhaps a million "Communists," followed by three decades of Suharto's despotic rule.

"Beauty Is a Wound" astonishes from its opening line: "One afternoon on a weekend in May, Dewi Ayu rose from her grave after being dead for twenty-one years…" Drawing on local sources—folk tales and the all-night shadow puppet plays, with their bawdy wit and epic scope—and inspired by Melville and Gogol, Kurniawan's distinctive voice brings something luscious yet astringent to contemporary literature.

Beauty Is a Wound

Originally written in Bahasa, "The Rainbow Troops" was first published in 2005 and sold a record-breaking five million copies in Indonesia. The novel tells the inspiring and closely autobiographical tale of the trials and tribulations that the ten motley students (nicknamed the Rainbow Troops) and two teachers from Muhammadiyah Elementary School on Belitong Island, Indonesia, undergo to ensure the continuation of the children’ s education. The poverty-stricken school suffers the constant threat of closure by government officials, greedy corporations, natural disasters and the students’ own lack of self-confidence. The story is written from the perspective of Ikal, who is six years old when the novel opens. Just as the author himself did as a young man, Ikal goes to college and eventually wins a scholarship to go abroad, beating incredible odds to become a writer.

This delightful, inspiring book has a fable-like quality that reminds us why we love stories— heartwarming stories, funny stories, stories that remind us of the precious things in life. Ikal and his band of plucky cohorts face obstacles large and small, and the reader can’t help but root for them to beat the odds and get the education— and life— they deserve. The setting is as compelling and memorable as the characters, and a rare window into a world we know little about.

"The Rainbow Troops" is the first of a tetralogy of novels that have all become bestsellers in Indonesia. It was adapted for the screen and shown at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2009.

The Rainbow Troops

Jocelyn Butler has been hiding from her past for years. But all her secrets are about to be laid bare ...

Four years ago, Jocelyn left her tragic past behind in the States and started over in Scotland, burying her grief, ignoring her demons, and forging ahead without attachments. Her solitary life is working well - until she moves into a new apartment on Dublin Street, where she meets a man who shakes her carefully guarded world to its core.

Braden Carmichael is used to getting what he wants, and he's determined to get Jocelyn into his bed. Knowing how skittish she is about entering a relationship, Braden proposes an arrangement that will satisfy their intense attraction without any strings attached.

But after an intrigued Jocelyn accepts, she realizes that Braden won't be satisfied with just mind-blowing passion. The stubborn Scotsman is intent on truly knowing her . . . down to the very soul.

On Dublin Street (On Dublin Street, #1)

Max Havelaar - a Dutch civil servant in Java - burns with an insatiable desire to end the ill treatment and oppression inflicted on the native peoples by the colonial administration. Max is an inspirational figure, but he is also a flawed idealist whose vow to protect the Javanese from cruelty ends in his own downfall. In Max Havelaar, Multatuli (the pseudonym for Eduard Douwes Dekker) vividly recreated his own experiences in Java and tellingly depicts the hypocrisy of those who gained from the corrupt coffee trade. Sending shockwaves through the Dutch nation when it was published in 1860, this damning exposé of the terrible conditions in the colonies led to welfare reforms in Java and continues to inspire the fairtrade movement today.

Roy Edwards's vibrant translation conveys the satirical and innovative style of Multatuli's autobiographical polemic. In his introduction, R. P. Meijer discusses the author's tempestuous life and career, the controversy the novel aroused and its unusual narrative structure.

Max Havelaar, or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company

Alif had never set foot outside of West Sumatra. He passed his childhood days searching for fallen durian fruit in the jungle, playing soccer on rice paddies, and swimming in the blue waters of Lake Maninjau. His mother wants him to attend an Islamic boarding school, a pesantren, while he dreams of public high school. Halfheartedly, he follows his mother’s wishes. He finds himself on a grueling three-day bus ride from Sumatra to Madani Pesantren (MP) in a remote village on Java.
 
On his first day at MP, Alif is captivated by the powerful phrase "man jadda wajada. He who gives his all will surely succeed." United by punishment, he quickly becomes friends with five boys from across the archipelago, and together they become known as the "Fellowship of the Manara." Beneath the mosque’s minaret, the boys gaze at the clouds on the horizon, seeing in them their individual dreams of far-away lands, like America and Europe. Where would these dreams take them? They didn’t know. What they did know was: never underestimate dreams, no matter how high they may be. God truly is The Listener.

 
"The Land of Five Towers" is the first book in a trilogy written by A. Fuadi—a former TEMPO &amp; VOA reporter, photography buff, and a social entrepreneur. He went to George Washington University and Royal Holloway, University of London for his masters. A portion of the royalties from the trilogy are intended to build "Komunitas Menara," a volunteer-based social organization which aims to provide free schools, libraries, clinics and soup kitchens for the less fortunate.

The Land of Five Towers

By the time she turned thirty, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern, educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want--a husband, a house in the country, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love and the complete eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.

To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quite her job, left her loved ones behind and undertook a year-long journey around the world, all alone. "Eat, Pray, Love" is the absorbing chronicle of that year. Gilbert's aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature, set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Italy, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, where, with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise Texan, she embarked on four months of austere spiritual exploration. Finally, in Indonesia, she sought her ultimate goal: balance--namely, how to somehow build a life of equilibrium between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. Looking for these answers on the island of Bali, she became the pupil of an elderly ninth-generation medicine man and also fell in love in the very best way--unexpectedly.

An intensely articulate, sensible, moving and funny memoir of self-discovery, "Eat, Pray, Love" is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment. It also about the adventures that can transpire when a woman stops trying to live in imitation of society's ideals. This is a story certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.

Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Katherine Howe, author of the phenomenal "New York Times" bestseller "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane", returns with an entrancing historical novel set in Boston in 1915, where a young woman stands on the cusp of a new century, torn between loss and love, driven to seek answers in the depths of a crystal ball.

Still reeling from the deaths of her mother and sister on the "Titanic", Sibyl Allston is living a life of quiet desperation with her taciturn father and scandal-plagued brother in an elegant town house in Boston’s Back Bay. Trapped in a world over which she has no control, Sibyl flees for solace to the parlor of a table-turning medium.

But when her brother is suddenly kicked out of Harvard under mysterious circumstances and falls under the sway of a strange young woman, Sibyl turns for help to psychology professor Benton Derby, despite the unspoken tensions of their shared past. As Benton and Sibyl work together to solve a harrowing mystery, their long-simmering spark flares to life, and they realize that there may be something even more magical between them than a medium’s scrying glass.

From the opium dens of Boston’s Chinatown to the opulent salons of high society, from the back alleys of colonial Shanghai to the decks of the "Titanic", "The House of Velvet and Glass" weaves together meticulous period detail, intoxicating romance, and a final shocking twist that will leave readers breathless.

The House of Velvet and Glass

Two First World War Novels: The Tiger and the Fly: A Young Man's Struggle to Come of Age Amidst the Horror of the First World War & The Redoubt

The tiny island of Run is an insignificant speck in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago--remote, tranquil, and now largely ignored. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, however, Run's harvest of nutmeg turned it into the most lucrative of the Spice Islands, precipitating a fierce and bloody battle between the all-powerful Dutch East India Company and a small band of ragtag British adventurers led by the intrepid Nathaniel Courthope. The outcome of the fighting was one of the most spectacular deals in history: Britain ceded Run to Holland, but in return was given another small island, Manhattan.A brilliant adventure story of unthinkable hardship and savagery, the navigation of uncharted waters, and the exploitation of new worlds, Nathaniel's Nutmeg is a remarkable chapter in the history of the colonial powers.

Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or, the True and Incredible Adventure of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History

This is a book about passion, obsession and discovery in an amazing land, but also about the voyage of a highly talented composer and writer.

"A House in Bali" remains one of the most remarkable books ever written about the fabled island of Bali. This classic book tells the story of Balinese culture through a history of Balinese music.

First published in 1947, it tells the story of the writer and composer Colin McPhee's (1900–64) obsession with a music once unknown to the West, and of his journey to Bali to experience it firsthand. In 1929, the young Canadian– born musician chanced upon rare gramophone recordings of Balinese gamelan music which were to change his life forever. From that moment, he lived for the day when he could set foot on the island where the clear, metallic music originated. He was able to realize his dreams and spent almost a decade there during the 1930's. Music of Bali and dance, as McPhee discovered to his delight, are second nature to the Balinese, and his subsequent writings and compositions proved seminal in popularizing Balinese gamelan music in the West.

In "A House in Bali", McPhee unfolds a beguiling picture of a society long established, staggeringly poor in Western terms, but rich beyond belief in spiritual values and joy. The young composer writes about his discoveries of music in Bali and growing understanding of an astonishing culture where the arts are a prime preoccupation, and of the arts, music is supreme. Much has been written on Bali, but this classic work from 1947 remains the only narrative by a Western musician.

A House in Bali

Pramoedya's "The Girl from the Coast" tells the story of a beautiful young woman from a fishing village who finds herself in an arranged marriage with a wealthy aristocrat. Forced to leave her parents and home behind, she moves to the city to become the 'lady' of her husband's house. Pramoedya's breathtaking literary skill is evident in every word of this book, one of his classic works of fiction made especially poignant because it is based on the life of his own grandmother.

The Girl from the Coast

In the Time of Madness: Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos

Suasana tak menentu seperti yang terjadi di Jakarta, dimanfaatkan dengan baik oleh orang yang mempunyai sifat bunglon, salah satu di antaranya adalah Halim. Pada saat Partai Indonesia berkuasa. Halim memihak partai tersebut. Ia memperoleh sejumlah besar uang untuk surat kabar yang dipimpinnya. Tentu saja, sebagian besar masuk ke kantongnya dan mendapat “hadiah” dari Partai Indonesia menjadi anggota parlemen. Ketika Partai Indonesia tak kuat menahan serangan oposisi, Halim berpihak pada oposisi dan berbalik menyerang partai yang dahulu memberi fasilitas kepadanya.

Senja di Jakarta

Although Indonesia has the fourth largest population in the world, its history is still relatively unknown. Adrian Vickers takes the reader on a journey across the social and political landscape of modern Indonesia, starting with the country's origins under the Dutch in the early twentieth-century, and the subsequent anti-colonial revolution which led to independence in 1949. Thereafter the spotlight is on the 1950s, a crucial period in the formation of Indonesia as a new nation, followed by the Sukarno years, and the anti-Communist massacres of the 1960s when General Suharto took over as president. The concluding chapters chart the fall of Suharto's New Order after thirty two years in power, and the subsequent political and religious turmoil which culminated in the Bali bombings in 2002. Adrian Vickers is Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Wollongong. He has previously worked at the Universities of New South Wales and Sydney, and has been a visiting fellow at the University of Indonesia and Udayana University (Bali). Vickers has more than twenty-five years research experience in Indonesia and the Netherlands, and has travelled in Southeast Asia, the U.S. and Europe in the course of his research. He is author of the acclaimed Bali: a Paradise Created (Penguin, 1989) as well as many other scholarly and popular works on Indonesia. In 2003 Adrian Vickers curated the exhibition Crossing Boundaries, a major survey of modern Indonesian art, and has also been involved in documentary films, including Done Bali (Negara Film and Television Productions, 1993).

A History of Modern Indonesia

Set against the backdrop of the Dutch invasion of Bali just over a century ago, and the resulting "mass suicides" of the Balinese royalty, the moving story unfolds of the peasant Pak and his family and friends, and the tragedy that is their shared fate.

Written within living memory of the bloody events called the "puputan" (the "ending"), "Love and Death in Bali" is the story of a passionate yet peaceful and deeply spiritual people who defy the Dutch imperial forces through an act that would bring them certain death—and certain rebirth. 

The looting of a Chinese trading ship gives the Dutch colonial forces the perfect excuse to intervene in island affairs, but they encounter astonishing resistance. In the battle of Badung, wave upon wave of Balinese clothed in white ceremonial garb charged into the blazing Dutch guns, kris daggers in hand, prepared to die. Who among them will survive, and how will their lives be forever changed? 

"Love and Death in Bali", first published in German in 1937, is considered by many to be the finest novel ever written about this island paradise where everyone, regardless of caste or position, is woven into the fabric of an ancient culture, connected by customs and, above all, by strong religious beliefs. now reissued in a completely re-edited edition under its original title, with an introduction by anthropologist and award-winning author Nigel Barkley.

Love and Death in Bali

Sultans, Spices, and Tsunamis: The Incredible Story of the World's Largest Archipelago

Indonesia is by far the largest nation in Southeast Asia and has the fourth largest population in the world after the United States. Indonesian history and culture are especially relevant today as the Island nation is an emerging power in the region with a dynamic new leader. It is a land of incredible diversity and unending paradoxes that has a long and rich history stretching back a thousand years and more. 

Indonesia is the fabled "Spice Islands" of every school child's dreams—one of the most colorful and fascinating countries in history. These are the islands that Europeans set out on countless voyages of discovery to find and later fought bitterly over in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. This was the land that Christopher Columbus sought, and Magellan reached and explored. One tiny Indonesian island was even exchanged for the island of Manhattan in 1667! 

This fascinating history book tells the story of Indonesia as a narrative of kings, traders, missionaries, soldiers and revolutionaries, featuring rough sea crossings, fiery volcanoes, and the occasional tiger. It recounts the colorful visits of foreign travelers who have passed through these shores for many centuries—from Chinese Buddhist pilgrims and Dutch adventurers to English sea captains and American movie stars. For readers who want an entertaining introduction to Asia's most fascinating country, this is delightful reading.

A Brief History of Indonesia: Sultans, Spices, and Tsunamis: The Incredible Story of Southeast Asia's Largest Nation

Marah Rusli adalah contoh sastrawan besar Indonesia yang benar-benar melampaui zamannya. Ia terus hidup, bersama keindahan cinta Sitti Nurbaya dan Samsulbahri, bersama kenangan dan kebencian orang-orang terhadap peringai Datunk Meringgih yang licik, akan tetapi sekaligus memesona.

Berkali-kali buku Sitti Nurbaya dibaca, berkali-kali pula ditemukan keindahan yang berbeda. Berkali-kali novel ini diperbincangkan, berkali-kali pula ditemukan misteri yang tak sama. Benarkah Samsulbahri adalah tokoh yang baik? Mengapa Datuk Meringgih yang digambarkan jahat pada akhir cerita menjadi patriot yang membela tanah air, dan kemudian wafat dengan darah membasahi ibu pertiwi? Siapakah sesungguhnya yang menjadi pahlawan?

Inilah novel tentang cinta yang indah, tentang patriotisme, dan tentang perjuangan nilai-nilai kemanusiaan yang selalu ada pada tiap zaman. Karena itulah, novel ini menjadi abadi.

Joni Ariadinata, redaktur Majalah "Horison"


Apabila kita membaca kembali novel "Sitti Nurbaya" karya Marah Rusli maka sangat boleh jadi kita akan menemukan makna-makna baru.

Maman S. Mahayana, Kritikus Sastra

Sitti Nurbaya: Kasih Tak Sampai

A History of Modern Indonesia Since C. 1300

The bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth's most dangerous volcano — Krakatoa. 

The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa — the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster — was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled round the planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of light. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogotá and Washington, D.C., went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on islands thousands of miles away. Most significant of all — in view of today's new political climate — the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims: one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere. 

Simon Winchester's long experience in the world wandering as well as his knowledge of history and geology give us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event as he brings it telling back to life.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883

In this exhilarating culinary novel, a woman’s road trip through Indonesia becomes a discovery of friendship, self, and other rare delicacies.

Aruna is an epidemiologist dedicated to food and avian politics. One is heaven, the other earth. The two passions blend in unexpected ways when Aruna is asked to research a handful of isolated bird flu cases reported across Indonesia. While it’s put a crimp in her aunt’s West Java farm, and made her own "confit de canard" highly questionable, the investigation does provide an irresistible opportunity.

It’s the perfect excuse to get away from corrupt and corrosive Jakarta and explore the spices of the far-flung regions of the islands with her three friends: a celebrity chef, a globe-trotting “foodist,” and her coworker Farish.

From Medan to Surabaya, Palembang to Pontianak, Aruna and her friends have their fill of local cuisine. With every delicious dish, she discovers there’s so much more to food, politics, and friendship. Now, this liberating new perspective on her country—and on her life—will push her to pursue the things she’s only dreamed of doing.

The Birdwoman's Palate

In the early morning hours of October 1, 1965, a group calling itself the September 30th Movement kidnapped and executed six generals of the Indonesian army, including its highest commander. The group claimed that it was attempting to preempt a coup, but it was quickly defeated as the senior surviving general, Haji Mohammad Suharto, drove the movement's partisans out of Jakarta. Riding the crest of mass violence, Suharto blamed the Communist Party of Indonesia for masterminding the movement and used the emergency as a pretext for gradually eroding President Sukarno's powers and installing himself as a ruler. Imprisoning and killing hundreds of thousands of alleged communists over the next year, Suharto remade the events of October 1, 1965 into the central event of modern Indonesian history and the cornerstone of his thirty-two-year dictatorship.

Despite its importance as a trigger for one of the twentieth century's worst cases of mass violence, the September 30th Movement has remained shrouded in uncertainty. Who actually masterminded it? What did they hope to achieve? Why did they fail so miserably? And what was the movement's connection to international Cold War politics? In "Pretext for Mass Murder", John Roosa draws on a wealth of new primary source material to suggest a solution to the mystery behind the movement and the enabling myth of Suharto's repressive regime. His book is a remarkable feat of historical investigation.

Finalist, Social Sciences Book Award, the International Convention of Asian Scholars

Pretext for Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and Suharto's Coup d'Etat in Indonesia

Named by "Time" magazine as one of the 100 most important innovators of the century, Tariq Ramadan is a leading Muslim scholar, with a large following especially among young European and American Muslims. Now, in his first book written for a wide audience, he offers a marvelous biography of the Prophet Muhammad, one that highlights the spiritual and ethical teachings of one of the most influential figures in human history.

"In the Footsteps of the Prophet" is a fresh and perceptive look at Muhammad, capturing a life that was often eventful, gripping, and highly charged. Ramadan provides both an intimate portrait of a man who was shy, kind, but determined, as well as a dramatic chronicle of a leader who launched a great religion and inspired a vast empire. More important, Ramadan presents the main events of the Prophet's life in a way that highlights his spiritual and ethical teachings. The book underscores the significance of the Prophet's example for some of today's most controversial issues, such as the treatment of the poor, the role of women, Islamic criminal punishments, war, racism, and relations with other religions. Selecting those facts and stories from which we can draw a profound and vivid spiritual picture, the author asks how can the Prophet's life remain -- or become again -- an example, a model, and an inspiration? And how can Muslims move from formalism -- a fixation on ritual -- toward a committed spiritual and social presence?

In this thoughtful and engaging biography, Ramadan offers Muslims a new understanding of Muhammad's life and he introduces non-Muslims not just to the story of the Prophet, but to the spiritual and ethical riches of Islam.


In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad

Written with a rare combination of analysis and speculation, this comprehensive study of Javanese religion is one of the few books on the religion of a non-Western people which emphasizes variation and conflict in belief as well as similarity and harmony. The reader becomes aware of the intricacy and depth of Javanese spiritual life and the problems of political and social integration reflected in the religion. 

"The Religion of Java" will interest specialists in Southeast Asia, anthropologists and sociologists concerned with the social analysis of religious belief and ideology, students of comparative religion, and civil servants dealing with governmental policy toward Indonesia and Southeast Asia. 


The Religion of Java

For fans of Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Franzen, Lorrie Moore, and Curtis Sittenfeld, "Among the Ten Thousand Things" is a dazzling first novel, a portrait of an American family on the cusp of irrevocable change, and a startlingly original story of love and time lost.
 
 Jack Shanley is a well-known New York artist, charming and vain, who doesn’t mean to plunge his family into crisis. His wife, Deb, gladly left behind a difficult career as a dancer to raise the two children she adores. In the ensuing years, she has mostly avoided coming face-to-face with the weaknesses of the man she married. But then an anonymously sent package arrives in the mail: a cardboard box containing sheaves of printed emails chronicling Jack’s secret life. The package is addressed to Deb, but it’s delivered into the wrong hands: her children’s.
  
 With this vertiginous opening begins a debut that is by turns funny, wise, and indescribably moving. As the Shanleys spin apart into separate orbits, leaving New York in an attempt to regain their bearings, fifteen-year-old Simon feels the allure of adult freedoms for the first time, while eleven-year-old Kay wanders precariously into a grown-up world she can’t possibly understand. Writing with extraordinary precision, humor, and beauty, Julia Pierpont has crafted a timeless, hugely enjoyable novel about the bonds of family life—their brittleness, and their resilience.

Among the Ten Thousand Things

Marni is an illiterate Javanese woman who still practices ancestor worship. Through her offerings she finds her gods and puts forth her hopes. She knows nothing of the God brought in from that faraway land.

Rahayu is Marni’s daughter, part of a new generation shaped by education and an easier life. She is a firm believer in God and in common sense. She stands against the ancestors, even against her own mother.

To Marni, Rahayu is a soulless being. And to Rahayu, Marni is a sinner. Each lives according to her own creed, with nothing in common.

Then come the sounds of the jackboots, constantly disrupting and destroying souls. They are the ones with the authority, the ones who play with power as they desire. They are the ones who can turn the skies and the fields red, and blood yellow, their guns ready to strike anywhere.

Marni and Rahayu, these women from two generations who have never understood each other, finally find something in their lives that they agree on. Both are victims of those in power. Both fight against the guns.

The Years of the Voiceless

Novel Burung-burung Manyar dapat dibaca sebagai bentuk proyek pasca-kolonial. Novel ini berusaha untuk mencari penyimpangan yang terjadi dalam penulisan sejarah Revolusi Indonesia. Sejarah dalam novel Burung-burung Manyar diceritakan secara mengalir dengan beberapa masukan anekdot. Sejarah tidak disampaikan dengan nada otoriter.

Sejarah dicerita melalui kisah cinta seorang yang bekerja mendukung kemerdekaan Indonesia, Larasati, dan Satadewa alias Teto, orang Indonesia yang bekerja dalam angkatan perang Belanda.

Menjelang akhir novel, terdapat kejutan yang menggelitik. Teto atau terbangkitkan jiwa nasionalismenya, dengan menjadi relawan membongkar kecurangan perusahaan tempatnya bekerja yang merugikan Indonesia.

The Weaverbirds

Gabungan 3 buku seri Dukuh Paruk: Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk, Lintang Kemukus Dini Hari &amp; Jantera Bianglala.

Semangat Dukuh Paruk kembali menggeliat sejak Srintil dinobatkan menjadi ronggeng baru, menggantikan ronggeng terakhir yang mati dua belas tahun yang lalu. Bagi pedukuhan yang kecil, miskin, terpencil dan bersahaja itu, ronggeng adalah perlambang. Tanpanya dukuh itu merasakah kehilangan jati diri.

Dengan segera Srintil menjadi tokoh yang amat terkenal dan digandrungi. Cantik dan menggoda. Semua ingin pernah bersama ronggeng itu. Dari kaula biasa hingga pekabat-pejabat desa maupun kabupaten. 

Namun malapetaka politik tahun 1965 membuat dukuh tersebut hancur, baik secara fisik maupun mental. Karena kebodohannya, mereka terbawa arus dan divonis sebagai manusia-manusia yang telah mengguncangkan negara ini. Pedukuhan itu dibakar. Ronggeng berserta para penabuh calung ditahan.Hanya karena kecantikannya Srintil tidak diperlakukan semena-mena oleh para penguasa penjara itu. 

Namun pengalaman pahit sebagai tahanan politikmembuat Srintil sadar akan harkatnya sebagai manusia. Karena itulah setelah bebas, ia berniat memperbaiki citra dirinya. Ia tak ingin lagi melayani lelaki manapun. Ia ingin menjadi wanita somahan. Dan ketika Bajus muncul dalam hidupnya sepercik harapan muncul, harapan yang semakin lama semakin besar.

Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk

Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her — but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.

So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the deep South to dangerously utopic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures.

The Water Dancer

The story of a 1983 journey to the center of Borneo, which no expedition had attempted since 1926. O'Hanlon, accompanied by friend and poet James Fenton and three native guides brings wit and humor to a dangerous journey.

Into the Heart of Borneo

Namanya Kugy. Mungil, pengkhayal, dan berantakan. Dari benaknya, mengalir untaian dongeng indah. Keenan belum pernah bertemu manusia seaneh itu.
 
...
 
Namanya Keenan. Cerdas, artistik, dan penuh kejutan. Dari tangannya, mewujud lukisan-lukisan magis. Kugy belum pernah bertemu manusia seajaib itu.
 
...
 
Dan kini mereka berhadapan di antara hamparan misteri dan rintangan. Akankah dongeng dan lukisan itu bersatu?
 
Akankah hati dan impian mereka bertemu?

Paper Boats

"The Gay Archipelago" is the first book-length exploration of the lives of gay men in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation and home to more Muslims than any other country. Based on a range of field methods, it explores how Indonesian gay and lesbian identities are shaped by nationalism and globalization. Yet the case of gay and lesbian Indonesians also compels us to ask more fundamental questions about how we decide when two things are the same or different. The book thus examines the possibilities of an archipelagic perspective on sameness and difference.


 Tom Boellstorff examines the history of homosexuality in Indonesia, and then turns to how gay and lesbian identities are lived in everyday Indonesian life, from questions of love, desire, and romance to the places where gay men and lesbian women meet. He also explores the roles of mass media, the state, and marriage in gay and lesbian identities.



"The Gay Archipelago" is unusual in taking the whole nation-state of Indonesia as its subject, rather than the ethnic groups usually studied by anthropologists. It is by looking at the nation in cultural terms, not just political terms, that identities like those of gay and lesbian Indonesians become visible and understandable. In doing so, this book addresses questions of sexuality, mass media, nationalism, and modernity with implications throughout Southeast Asia and beyond.

The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia

For Maya, history is like a dream, and her dreams are like a history of her life and how it relates to others. Effortlessly defying and calling into question time and space, Maya inhabits fantastical realities filled with shamans, romantic longing, a daughter’s struggles, and a flying dragon.

Lyrically flowing between Maya’s multiple realities, "The Original Dream" is the story of a young independent Indonesian woman trying to break free from cultural and social conventions while also searching for her place among family and friends. With guidance from her parents, coworkers, and sister, along with a newborn filled with the wisdom of elders, Maya navigates her perceptions, looking for answers to unknown questions. Whether soaring through the nighttime sky, caring for her nephew, or tending to guests at the hotel where she works, she tries to delineate the difference between dreams and reality and if such a difference even matters.

The Original Dream

The year is 1965. The fiercely nationalistic government of the god-king Sukarno has brought Indonesia to the brink of chaos. Engulfed in the violence are Guy Hamilton, a Western journalist; Billy Kwan, his Chinese-Australian cameraman; and the young British woman they both love. Kwan's disillusionment with his hero Sukarno leads him to desperate action, and a complex drama of loyalty and betrayal is played out in the eye of the political storm.

The Year of Living Dangerously

"How can such a gentle people as we are be so murderous?" a prominent Indonesian asks. That question--and the mysteries of the archipelago's vast contradictions--haunt Theodore Friend's remarkable work, a narrative of Indonesia during the last half century, from the postwar revolution against Dutch imperialism to the unrest of today. Part history, part meditation on a place and a past observed firsthand, "Indonesian Destinies" penetrates events that gave birth to the world's fourth largest nation and assesses the continuing dangers that threaten to tear it apart.

Friend reveals Sukarno's character through wartime collaboration with Japan, and Suharto's through the mass murder of communists that brought him to power for thirty-two years. He guides our understanding of the tolerant forms of Islam prevailing among the largest Muslim population in the world, and shows growing tensions generated by international terrorism. Drawing on a deep knowledge of the country's cultures, its leaders, and its ordinary people, Friend gives a human face and a sense of immediacy to the self-inflicted failures and immeasurable tragedies that cast a shadow over Indonesia's past and future. A clear and compelling passion shines through this richly illustrated work. Rarely have narrative history and personal historical witness been so seamlessly joined.

Indonesian Destinies

Sang Pemimpi

This guidebook to Indonesia for budget travellers gives historical, cultural and environmental commentary. It includes insider's information about recreational activities and local specialities.

Indonesia Handbook

Eric Hansen was the first westerner ever to walk across the island of Borneo. Completely cut off from the outside world for seven months, he traveled nearly 1,500 miles with small bands of nomadic hunters known as Penan. Beneath the rain forest canopy, they trekked through a hauntingly beautiful jungle where snakes and frogs fly, pigs climb trees, giant carnivorous plants eat mice, and mushrooms glow at night. At once a modern classic of travel literature and a gripping adventure story, Stranger in the Forest provides a rare and intimate look at the vanishing way of life of one of the last surviving groups of rain forest dwellers. Hansen's absorbing, and often chilling, account of his exploits is tempered with the humor and humanity that prompted the Penan to take him into their world and to share their secrets.

Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo

"Harimau! Harimau!" telah mendapat Hadiah Yayasan Buku Utama sebagai buku penulisan sastra terbaik tahun 1975.

Buku ini dapat dibaca sebagai sebuah cerita petualangan di rimba raya oleh sekelompok pengumpul damar yang diburu oleh seekor harimau yang kelaparan. Berhari-hari mereka mencoba menyelamatkan diri mereka dan seorang demi seorang di antara mereka jatuh menjadi korban terkaman harimau.
Di tingkat lain, juga terjadi petualangan dalam diri masing-masing anggota kelompok pengumpul damar ini. Di bawah tekanan ancaman harimau yang terus-menerus memburu mereka, dalam diri meraka masing-masing, yang mempertinggi pula kesadaran mereka tentang kekuatan dan kelemahan-kelemahan para anggota kelompok mereka yang lain.

Di antara mereka malahan sampai pada kesadaran bahwa sebelum membunuh harimau yang memburu-buru mereka, tak kalah pentingnya ialah untuk membunuh terlebih dahulu harimau yang berada dalam setiap anak manusia.

Buku ini telah diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Inggris, Belanda, Jerman, dan sebuah terjemahan dalam bahasa Jepang sedang dilakukan pula.

Harimau! Harimau!

Jim, a young British seaman, becomes first mate on the Patna, a ship full of pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the hajj. When the ship starts rapidly taking on water and disaster seems imminent, Jim joins his captain and other crew members in abandoning the ship and its passengers. A few days later, they are picked up by a British ship. However, the Patna and its passengers are later also saved, and the reprehensible actions of the crew are exposed. The other participants evade the judicial court of inquiry, leaving Jim to the court alone. He is publicly censured for this action and the novel follows his later attempts at coming to terms with his past. The novel is counted as one of 100 best books of the 20th century.

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), was a Polish author who wrote in English after settling in England. Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English, though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties. He wrote stories and novels, often with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an indifferent world. He was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English tragic sensibility into English literature.

Contents: 

Lord Jim

Memoirs &amp; Letters:

A Personal Record; or Some Reminiscences

The Mirror of the Sea

Notes on Life &amp; Letters

Biography &amp; Critical Essays:

Joseph Conrad (A Biography) by Hugh Walpole

Joseph Conrad by John Albert Macy

A Conrad Miscellany by John Albert Macy

Joseph Conrad by Virginia Woolf

Indonesia

This Earth of Mankind (Buru Quartet, #1)

Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Indonesia, Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation

Elizabeth Pisani

Beauty Is a Wound

Eka Kurniawan

The Rainbow Troops

Andrea Hirata

On Dublin Street (On Dublin Street, #1)

Samantha Young

Max Havelaar, or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company

Multatuli

The Land of Five Towers

Ahmad Fuadi

Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Elizabeth Gilbert

The House of Velvet and Glass

Katherine Howe

Two First World War Novels: The Tiger and the Fly: A Young Man's Struggle to Come of Age Amidst the Horror of the First World War & The Redoubt

Stuart Minor

Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or, the True and Incredible Adventure of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History

Giles Milton

A House in Bali

Colin McPhee

The Girl from the Coast

Pramoedya Ananta Toer

In the Time of Madness: Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos

Richard Lloyd Parry

Senja di Jakarta

Mochtar Lubis

A History of Modern Indonesia

Adrian Vickers

Love and Death in Bali

Vicki Baum

A Brief History of Indonesia: Sultans, Spices, and Tsunamis: The Incredible Story of Southeast Asia's Largest Nation

Tim Hannigan

Sitti Nurbaya: Kasih Tak Sampai

Marah Rusli

A History of Modern Indonesia Since C. 1300

M.C. Ricklefs

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883

Simon Winchester

The Birdwoman's Palate

Laksmi Pamuntjak

Pretext for Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and Suharto's Coup d'Etat in Indonesia

John Roosa

In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad

Tariq Ramadan

The Religion of Java

Clifford Geertz

Among the Ten Thousand Things

Julia Pierpont

The Years of the Voiceless

Okky Madasari

The Weaverbirds

Y.B. Mangunwijaya

Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk

Ahmad Tohari

The Water Dancer

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Into the Heart of Borneo

Redmond O'Hanlon

Paper Boats

Dee Lestari

The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia

Tom Boellstorff

The Original Dream

Nukila Amal

The Year of Living Dangerously

Christopher J. Koch

Indonesian Destinies

Theodore Friend

Sang Pemimpi

Andrea Hirata

Indonesia Handbook

Bill Dalton

Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo

Eric Hansen

Harimau! Harimau!