Annie Tucker

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 March, 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.

Author Info

Eka Kurniawan was born in Tasikmalaya, Indonesia, in 1975. He studied philosophy at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, and is the author of novels, short stories, essays, movie scripts, and graphic novels. His novel Man Tiger was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016, and his work has been translated into thirty-four languages. His epic novel of magical realism, Beauty is a Wound, described as a “howling masterpiece” by Chigozie Obioma in the Millions, has been widely praised internationally. The New York Review of Books considers Kurniawan “a literary child of Günter Grass, Gabriel García Márquez, and Salman Rushdie,” and Le Monde has suggested that in the future, Nobel jurors may award him the prize “that Indonesia has never received.”

An unforgettable, all-encompassing epic of Indonesian history, magic, and murder. Indeed, the combination of magic, lore, and pivotal events reverberating through generations will prompt readers to draw parallels between Kurniawan’s Halimunda and García Márquez’s Macondo. But Kurniawan’s characters are all destined for despair and sorrow, and the result is a darker and more challenging read than One Hundred Years of Solitude. An astounding, momentous book.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 “American literature has been missing Kurniawan, without even being aware, until now, of our loss—a situation that Annie Tucker’s dauntless translation, in particular, has helped to remedy.”
—Bookforum

“A vivacious translation of a comic but emotionally powerful Indonesian novel”
—PEN America

Vivid and bawdy, here is the new novel by the Indonesian superstar Eka Kurniawan.

Told in short, cinematic bursts, Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is gloriously pulpy. Ajo Kawir, a lower-class Javanese teenage boy excited about sex, likes to spy on fellow villagers in flagrante, but when he witnesses a savage rape, he is deeply traumatized and becomes impotent. His efforts to get his virility back all fail, and Ajo Kawir turns to fighting as a way to vent his frustrations. He is hired to kill a thug named The Tiger, but instead Ajo Kawir falls in love with Iteung, a gorgeous female bodyguard who works for the local mafia. Alas, the course of true love never did run smooth…. Fast-forward a decade. Now a truck driver, Ajo Kawir has reached a new equanimity, thinking that his penis may be trying to teach him a lesson: he even consults it in many situations as if it were his guru—and love may triumph yet.

Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash shows Eka Kurniawan in a gritty, comic, pungent mode that fans of Quentin Tarantino will appreciate. But even with its liberal peppering of fights, high-speed car chases, and ladies heaving with desire, the novel continues to explore Kurniawan’s familiar themes of the perils of love and of the struggles of women in a violent and corrupt male world.

Author Info

Eka Kurniawan was born in Tasikmalaya, Indonesia, in 1975. He studied philosophy at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, and is the author of novels, short stories, essays, movie scripts, and graphic novels. His novel Man Tiger was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016, and his work has been translated into thirty-four languages. His epic novel of magical realism, Beauty is a Wound, described as a “howling masterpiece” by Chigozie Obioma in the Millions, has been widely praised internationally. The New York Review of Books considers Kurniawan “a literary child of Günter Grass, Gabriel García Márquez, and Salman Rushdie,” and Le Monde has suggested that in the future, Nobel jurors may award him the prize “that Indonesia has never received.”

“Vengeance is Mine is a very funny book… and many of the book’s funniest moments are products of single, specific word choices … Kurniawan’s prose, aided by Annie Tucker’s translation, is tight and vivid, his characters complete.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books

“A vibrant translation… illustrate[s]… knots of community, where propriety and rage and survival coexist, with a surprising amount of compassion—and illuminate the pain and learning of the next generation with tremendous grace.”
—The Atlantic

“Kurniawan’s prose, translated from the Indonesian by Annie Tucker, is pungent…the physicality of his prose and his story is invigorating.”
—The Paris Review

“Kurniawan writes with an urgency and flair that holds the reader in a vice-like grip.”
—The Wire

“Kurniawan tells the ribald, noir-inflected, and oddly epic story of a man’s quest to regain his sexual virility…This is an almost unbelievably fun and weird novel.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Savor the familiar scent of clove and tobacco…for this is the aroma of Indonesia’s history.

Soeraja is dying. On his deathbed he calls for Jeng Yah, a woman who is not his wife. His three sons, Lebas, Karim and Tegar – heirs to Kretek Djagad Raja, Indonesia’s largest clove cigarette empire – are shocked, and their mother is consumed by jealousy. So begins the brothers’ search into the deepest recesses of Java for Jeng Yah, to fulfil their father’s dying wish and to learn the truth about the family business and its secrets.

Cigarette Girl is more than just a love story and the soul-searching journey of three brothers. Set on the island of Java the story follows the evolution of a family’s kretek, or clove cigarette, business from its birth in the Dutch East Indies of the early 1940s, and it takes readers through three generations of Indonesian history, from the Dutch colonial era to the Japanese occupation, the struggle for independence and the bloody coup of 1965 in which half a million Indonesians were hunted down and killed.

Rich in detail, with characters who struggle to right the wrongs of past generations, their relationships torn apart by the viciousness of revolution and politics, Cigarette Girl introduces readers to the history of Indonesia through clove cigarettes and unrequited love.

Author Info

Ratih Kumala is an author based in Jakarta, Indonesia. She also writes screenplays for TV and film. Cigarette Girl is her fifth work of fiction and has been published in four languages: English, German, Arabic, and its original language, Bahasa Indonesia.

“Ratih Kumala: An instinctive, detailed storyteller.”
—Jakarta Post

“Cigarette Girl provides fascinating glimpses of contemporary Indonesian social attitudes, and of Indonesian folklore and folk beliefs and provides a sustained, and brave, exploration of recent Indonesian politics and history… fluently translated by Annie Tucker… adding a layer of linguistic richness and interest to an already interesting and absorbing novel.” —Asian Review of Books

Nirzona is a deeply romantic, fiercely political, and unapologetically intellectual love story between a Javanese feminist and an activist from Aceh.

When Sidan’s family and village are swept away in the 2004 tsunami that ravaged Indonesia, he rushes home to Aceh, leaving behind Yogyakarta, his studies, and his beloved, Firdaus. Interrupting their plan to marry, Sidan promises Firdaus he will soon return to her side so they can spend the rest of their lives together.

But the unimaginable scale of loss and the political and cultural complexities that ensnare the recovery make it impossible for Sidan to abandon his birthplace and the graves of his family. Stoked by his love for Firdaus and their shared devotion to the poetic beauty of Islam, Sidan remains in Aceh, doing everything in his power to help the survivors while keeping in close contact with his beloved.

In spirit Sidan and Firdaus are one, but in body they are distant. Theirs is a love bonded in the transcendent fires of death and destruction, but is that enough to sustain the relationship?

Author Info

Abidah El Khalieqy was born in 1965 in Jombang, East Java. She graduated from an all-girls Persatuan Islam boarding school in Pasuruan and Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University in Yogyakarta. She began to write in her youth and has had a productive career, publishing nine novels, most recently Mimpi Anak Pulau (An Island Child’s Dream, 2013); two short story collections; and the poetry collection Ibuku Laut Berkobar (My Mother Is the Shining Sea, 1997). Her 2001 novel Perempuan Berkalung Sorban (The Woman in the Turban) was adapted for the screen and won several awards. Geni Jora (Light of the Morning Star, 2003) was judged Best Novel by the Jakarta Arts Council in 2003.

El Khalieqy’s work gives a voice to women, including victims of polygamy and domestic violence, whom she feels are still often marginalized in Indonesia. Her work has been widely anthologized and has received numerous awards.

“With its beautifully knitted language, as well as its poetical diction, the novel touches the sensitive area of the reader’s emotional intelligence, trying to bring the reader to a wider comprehension of the diversity in race, religion, tradition and culture in Aceh without necessarily distracting the reader from the primary idea of the love story it deals with… Amazon-Crossing made the right decision to ask Annie Tucker … to translate the novel into English.”

—Jakarta Post

The Lontar Anthology of Indonesian Poetry presents a wide-ranging selection of twentieth-century poetry, more than 325 poems by more than 180 authors, available for the first time in English translation.

In Indonesia poetry enjoys a status far and above all other genres. Popular with the public in a way that’s unimaginable in the West, poetry is accessible through newspapers, magazines, radio, television, films and poetry readings. Major historical issues are articulated and negotiated through poetry, such as decolonization and the emergence of national consciousness, ethnic and gendered identities, and the environmental and social effects of modernization. This anthology offers a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Indonesia as seen through the lens of its poetry. As a complement to the Lontar anthologies of Indonesian drama and short stories, The Lontar Anthology of Indonesian Poetry offers the unique opportunity to explore the trajectories of a nation and its people through its poetry, which continues to act as the barometer of Indonesian literary life.

Author Info

Ajamuddin Tifani (South Kalimantan, 1951-2002) wrote poetry, short stories, plays, essays, columns, and articles about culture. He was the literature editor for Media Masyarakat and organized the Declamation Studio broadcast on the national radio station and a Banjar-language broadcast for Banjarmasin. He received the Darul Iman III Literary Award from Malaysia (1994) and the Borneo Award (2005). His poetry collections include Problema-Problema (1975), Lalan (1975), Jembatan I (1987) and Jembatan II (1988).

Amal Hamza (North Sumatra, 1922-unknown) was a poet, translator, and educator. His works include a collection of poetry Pembebasan Pertama (1949) and a collection of criticism, Buku dan Penulis (1950).

Armijn Pane (North Sumatra 1909-1970) co-founded Pujangga Baru magazine. His most famous novel is Belenggu (1940) and he was awarded the National Award for Acheivement in Art from the Indonesian government in 1969.

Hamidah (South Sumatra, 1914-1953) was one of the few women writers of her era. She wrote poetry and fiction emphasizing the importance of education in confronting cultural traditions that oppress women.

Isma Sawitri (Aceh) was a journalist for Tempo whose poetry has been included in numerous compilations.

Iyut Fitra (West Sumatra) writes poetry and short stories. Published books include Musim Retak (2006), Dongeng-Dongeng Tua (2009) and Orang-orang Berpayung Hitam (2015).

Linus Suryadi (Yogyakarta, 1951-1999) is a poet whose most famous work is the lyrical Pengakuan Pariyem (1981). He studied at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa and also edited several important poetry anthologies, including Tonggak, volumes 1-4 (1987).

Magusig O Bungai (Central Kalimantan) is an exiled writer. He resides in Paris where, with Umar Said and Sobron Aidit, he runs an Indonesian restaurant.

Mas Rucitadewi (Bali) is active in fiction and theater. He wrote the award-winning play Laki-laki Serumah (1985).

Nursjamsu Nasution (West Sumatra, 1921-1995) is a widely anthologized poet who was also a member of the Jakarta Arts Council, 1973-1979.

Sirikit Syahlk (Surabaya) is a journal, educator, and poet who has been a journalist for the Surabaya Post and published the poetry collection Memotret Dengan Kata-kata (2005).

Soeprijadi Tomodihardjo (Pare) is a writer in exile who lives in Cologne, Germany. He began his writing career in the 1950s in Surabaya. He was editor of Trompet Masyarakat newspaper and Brawijaya magazine, and a member of LEKRA (the Institute for People’s Culture), the arts organization associated with the Indonesian Communist Party. After the events of September 30, 1965 he was exiled to China and worked as a journalist and translator for Xinhua in Beijing. Later he moved to Germany. He writes poetry, short stories, essays, and journalism. His work has been published in Kisah, Mimbar Indonesia, Siasat, Roman, and Sastra. He has published one poetry collection, Suara Anak Semang (1989) and three short story collections, Saudara dan Seorang Anak Semang (1988), Kera di Kepala (2006) and Cucu Tukang Perang (2011).

Sosiawan Leak (Surakarta) is a poet and playwright. His poetry collections include Umpatan (with K.R.T. Sujonoputro, 1995), Dunia Bogambola (with Thomas Budi Santosa, 2007), and Kidung dari Bandungan (with Rini Tri Purspohardini, 2011).

T. Mulya Lubis (North Sumatra) is a lawyer who studied law at the University of Indonesia, Harvard, and Berkeley. He was the director of the Legal Aid Foundation in Indonesia. He published, with Rayani Sriwidodo, the poetry collection Pada Sebuah Lorong in 1970.

Usmar Ismail (Bukittinggi, 1921-1971) studied cinematography at UCLA and is best known as a director and screenwriter. He has written plays and essays and journalism. He was chief editor of Arena and chair of the Indonesian Journalist’s Association, and the author of the poetry collection Puntung Berasap (1950).

Walujati (Sukabumi, 1924-unknown) published her poems in numerous books and anthologies including Gema Tanah Air (1948), Pujani (1951), Seserpih Pinang Sepucuk Sirih (1979), Tonggak 1 (1987) and Ungu: Antologi Puisi Wanita Penyair Indonesia (1990).

Wilson Tjandinegara (Makassar) is a poet and translator of Mandarin. Many of his works have been published in the Mandarin newspaper Harian Indonesia. His collections of poetry include Puisi Untukmu (1996), Cisadane (1996) and Rumah Panggung di Kampung Halaman (1999). He compiled an anthology of classic Tang Dynasty poetry, Antologi Sajak Klasik Dinasti Tang (Versi Modern) Mandarin-Indonesia (2001) and has edited several anthologies of works by Chinese writers.

The Lontar Anthology of Indonesian Short Stories is the first definitive anthology in English of Indonesian short stories from the twentieth century.

These two volumes, featuring a selection of 109 of the most popular and influential works of short fiction, span the entire century, from pre-Independence Indonesia to the year 2000, and include many new translations. The editors drew from a wide cross section of Indonesian short story writers with respect to ethnicity, gender, class, and ideology. Volume 1 presents 48 stories dating back to the days of rising nationalism in the first part of the century to just before the downfall of Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, and the rise of a militaristic government following the tragic events of 1965. Stories from the 1920s that drew on oral storytelling traditions and were suffused with nationalistic ideology were gradually replaced by fiction written with realism as a guiding principle. At all times, writers were the unofficial spokespeople for the issues affecting their generation.

Author Info

Muhammad Salim Balfas or M. Balfas, 1922-1975 wrote poems, short stories, novels, plays, children’s books, biographies, and literary criticism. Balfas was a memver of the ’45 Generation (Angkatan ’45) literary circle. Along with several other writers, he founded and managed Masyarakat, Kisah, and Sastra magazines. He worked at the Voice of Malaysia and later taught at Sydney University in Australia.

Eka Kurniawan is the first Indonesian writer to be nominated for a Man Booker Prize. Here is his first collection of short stories–Indonesian literature’s characteristic form–to be translated into English.

A man captures a caronang, a strange, intelligent dog that walks upright, and brings it home, only to provoke an all-too-human outcome. A girl plots against a witch doctor whose crimes against her are, infuriatingly, like any other man’s. Stories explore the turbulent dreams of an ex-prostitute, a perpetual student, victims of anti-communist genocide, an elephant, a stone. Dark, sexual, scatalogical, violent, and mordantly funny, these fractured fables span city and country, animal and human, myth and politics.

Author Info

Eka Kurniawan was born in Tasikmalaya, Indonesia, in 1975. He studied philosophy at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, and is the author of novels, short stories, essays, movie scripts, and graphic novels. His novel Man Tiger was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016, and his work has been translated into thirty-four languages. His epic novel of magical realism, Beauty is a Wound, described as a “howling masterpiece” by Chigozie Obioma in the Millions, has been widely praised internationally. The New York Review of Books considers Kurniawan “a literary child of Günter Grass, Gabriel García Márquez, and Salman Rushdie,” and Le Monde has suggested that in the future, Nobel jurors may award him the prize “that Indonesia has never received.”

“ Kurniawan’s deadpan, incisive collection… Erupting with awareness and dark wit.” —Publisher’s Weekly, starred review

“Savage, scatological, unsettling, these stories yet shimmer with a soul-stirring beauty.” —The Hindu

“These short, spiky tales are a joy to read.”
—New Internationalist

“Scintillating and often darkly humorous, Kitchen Curse by Eka Kurniawan is a masterful take on the vicissitudes of life for contemporary Indonesians.”
—Asian Review of Books

“Little fables of degradation from one of Indonesia’s most famous authors.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Beloved writer and editor John Freeman draws together some of our greatest writers from around the world to help us see how the environmental crisis is hitting some of the most vulnerable communities where they live.

“The Well,” a short story authored by Eka Kurniawan, is an allegory about the grim toll of climate change, which irrevocably changes people’s relationship to the land and to each other. In the story, water becomes at once a tangible element and a metaphor for connection and renewal, both of which are lost due to the cascading scarcity effects of warming temperatures and shifting weather patterns.

Told in an unusually melancholy register for Kurniawan, “The Well” is at once a commentary on Indonesia’s very real and interconnected problems of rapid urbanization, land mismanagement, drought, and polluted waterways and a striking meditation on the infinite—and sometimes, sadly finite—resources of the human heart.

Author Info

Eka Kurniawan was born in Tasikmalaya, Indonesia, in 1975. He studied philosophy at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, and is the author of novels, short stories, essays, movie scripts, and graphic novels. His novel Man Tiger was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016, and his work has been translated into thirty-four languages. His epic novel of magical realism, Beauty is a Wound, described as a “howling masterpiece” by Chigozie Obioma in the Millions, has been widely praised internationally. The New York Review of Books considers Kurniawan “a literary child of Günter Grass, Gabriel García Márquez, and Salman Rushdie,” and Le Monde has suggested that in the future, Nobel jurors may award him the prize “that Indonesia has never received.”

An anthology of ten translated contemporary short stories by ten Indonesian writers. As part of Comma’s acclaimed ‘Reading the City’ series that aims to capture the essence of a contemporary city.

Like Indonesia itself, the capital city Jakarta is a multiplicity; irreducible, unpredictable and full of surprises. Traversing the different neighborhoods and districts, the stories gathered here attempt to capture the essence of contemporary Jakarta and its writing, as well as the ever-changing landscape of the fastest-sinking city in the world.

“Grown Up Kids,” a short story by Ziggy Zesyazeoviennazabriskie depicts a speculative Jakarta fifty years in the future, when a group of women pay a visit to the famous amusement park “Dufan” for one last ride, but things don’t go exactly as planned.

Author Info

Ziggy Zesyazeoviennazabriskie was born in Bandar Lampung in 1993. She won the Jakarta Arts Council’s Novel Writing Competition in 2013 and 2016, was long-listed for Khatulistiwa Literary Award 2015, received the 2017 Editor’s Choice Award from Rolling Stone in Indonesia, and selected to receive an award from the Ministry of Education and Culture’s National Agency for Language Development and Books for her novels.

“[A] true gem is Grown-Up Kids by Ziggy Zezsyazeoviennazabrizkie … about growing old in a city that has outgrown and consumed itself.” —Bandit Fiction 

A Tapestry of Colours: Stories from Asia

A Tapestry of Colours 1 comprises twelve short stories from Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. This anthology, curated especially for young adults, provides a platform for readers to develop global awareness of the landscape and the people of Asia. Readers gain insight into the rich and diverse landscapes, heritage and cultural practices of Asia, from countries such as India, Korea, Japan, Maylasia, and Indonesia. La Rangku, The Kite Prince, a short story by Niduparas Erlang, brings the rich kite-flying lore of South Sulawesi to life through the eyes of a young child, while simultaneously speaking to the ineffable nature of loss.

Author Info

Niduparas Erlang was born in Serang in 1986. He writes stories, novels, essays, and journalism. His latest novel, Burung Kayu (The Wooden Bird, 2020) won the prestigious Khatulistiwa Literary Award in the year of its publication. His other books include the award-winning short story collections La Rangku (The Kite Prince, 2011) and Penanggung Tiga Butir Lada Hitam di Dalam Pusar (The One with Three Peppercorns in His Bellybutton, 2015). He runs the Aing Community, facilitates the interdisciplinary cultural heritage and arts center Banten Girang Laboratorium, and helps manage the Multatuli Art Festival, and is an Indonesian Literature Professor at Pamulang University.

UNSAID: An Asian Anthology

Fifteen stories, all set in Asia. Fifteen storytellers, who have mastered the art of laying bare the human psyche. Stories of pain, and power, and good fighting the bad. Stories that take you to the mystical dark side. Stories that knot family ties in darkness. This is UNSAID: An Asian Anthology.

In “The Shattered Tile,” a short story by Niduparas Erlang, an Indonesian husband living in a small village must contend with his neighbor’s death and his wife’s infidelity—as he also struggles to pass a painful kidney stone.

Author Info

Niduparas Erlang was born in Serang in 1986. He writes stories, novels, essays, and journalism. His latest novel, Burung Kayu (The Wooden Bird, 2020) won the prestigious Khatulistiwa Literary Award in the year of its publication. His other books include the award-winning short story collections La Rangku (The Kite Prince, 2011) and Penanggung Tiga Butir Lada Hitam di Dalam Pusar (The One with Three Peppercorns in His Bellybutton, 2015). He runs the Aing Community, facilitates the interdisciplinary cultural heritage and arts center Banten Girang Laboratorium, helps manage the Multatuli Art Festival, and is an Indonesian Literature Professor at Pamulang University.

Cursed with a cleft lip and a disreputable father, Mat has been an outcast since birth in Cottonwood Grove, his village in Indonesia. Never having known love or kindness, he grows up to be a lonely and violent man, ever ready to kill anyone who annoys him. Inayatun is the village beauty, surrounded by admirers, and flagrantly promiscuous. Miraculously, when this unlikely couple meets, they find true love and happiness in each other. But the past won’t let them be. There are too many in the village who have scores to settle with Mat, and who lust after Inayatun. A plot is hatched which leaves Inayatun and her unborn baby dead. Mat is accused of the murders but is saved from the gallows by the testimony of his grandfather, who mysteriously reappears after 15 years. But the people of Cottonwood Grove take the law into their own hands. What at first seems like a tale of small-town scapegoating and defiant true love ultimately reveals a grudge nursed for generations, and the animosity between peasant farmers and corrupt government forces.

In this brilliant tour de force that combines Javanese oral tradition and urban legend with the literary frame of the unreliable narrator, Mahfud Ikhwan has established himself as one of the most exciting new literary voices to emerge from Asia.

Author Info

Mahfud Ikhwan is an award-winning author who has written four novels, numerous short stories, and popular news columns. A Dark Tale from Cottonwood Grove, in its original Indonesian Kisah Kelabu dari Rumbuk Randu won the prestigious Khatulistiwa Literary Award. His two popular blogs, one on Bollywood film and one on soccer, have each led to book compilations of his posts. Indonesian language readers can follow his writing online at his blogs, Dushman Duniya Ka, Belakang Gawang, and his column for Mojok magazine.