At the turn of the twentieth century, exotic dancer Mata Hari lived and loved by her own rules. *** My Name is Mata Hari tells the story of the infamous dancer and courtesan who began as Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, a young Dutch woman who married the older Rudolph MacLeod, a military officer, and traveled with him to the Dutch East Indies. Claiming her mother's Javanese ancestry, she changed her name to Mata Hari, Malay for "eye of the day." Mata Hari danced on stages across Europe and the Middle East, and took many high-ranking military and government officials as her lovers. At the end of a tumultuous life, convicted for espionage during the First World War yet sustained by her pride, she said, "I am a genuine courtesan. And I am a dancer in the true sense." *** Remy Sylado is the pen name of noted Indonesian novelist, poet, playwright, and musician, Yapi Tambayong. He also wrote the screenplay for the award-winning film, Ca Bau Kan (2002). Novelist and journalist Dewi Anggraeni delivers a creative rendition of startling depth and sensitivity for the first of Sylado's novels to appear in English.

My Name Is Mata Hari

Literature & Fiction

Sylado, Remy

Literary

Dalang Publishing

The story of Dasamuka, a historical novel by Junaedi Setiyono, unfolds in the Yogyakarta Sultanate, a region in Central Java, Indonesia. Set between 1811 and 1824, the narrative addresses not only Dutch colonialization but also the British interval in Dutch rule between 1811 and 1816.The Indonesian word dasamuka translates as ten faces, dasa meaning ten and muka meaning face. The author uses the word to metaphorically describe one of his main characters, a young, ambitious, talented nobleman whose diverse character traits enable him to maneuver among the many challenges life compels him to confront.Setiyono's narrator, Willem Kappers, is a Scottish scholar from the University of Edinburgh. Jilted by his fianc e, Kappers decides to move as far away from Scotland as he can. Since he has an uncle residing in the Yogyakarta Sultanate, he signs up for a research project of Dr. John Casper Leyden, a world-renowned Scottish scientist with a special interest in the Dutch East Indies. The voice of Kappers enables Setiyono to spotlight many issues that even today remain taboo subjects for Javanese.Kappers arrives on the island of Java in August 1811 by way of a Royal Navy warship sent to seize the island for Britain from the then reigning Dutch. Kappers's assignment is to learn the significance of the word bronjong, which describes an ancient form of capital punishment decreed by a Javanese court of law. His research brings him into close contact with the Javanese people, royalty as well as commoners. Since Kappers finds employment in the local colonial government office, the reader also becomes privy to the internal colonial modus operandi.During his fourteen-year sojourn in the sultanate, Kappers becomes a close friend of Den Wahyana, a Javanese nobleman who is politically engaged. Den Wahyana not only brings Kappers into the inner circle of Prince Diponegoro II, the leader of a group of controversial individuals known as the Tegalreja Group, but also introduces him to religious leaders, families of the palace staff, and Dasamuka. Through these relationships, Kappers becomes ensnared in the kidnapping of one of the sultan's concubines, who is also Dasamuka's wife.Recounting the couple's escape, Setiyono's lyrical voice transports the reader to the lush landscape of Central Java and into its rich culture, steeped in mysticism and religious doctrine. Setiyono brings the most powerful human emotions--love, betrayal, and greed--to the page as Kappers experiences an infatuation with a Javanese woman, indignation over the 1812 plunder of the Keraton by the British Army, and the fierce resistance of the Javanese people against colonial oppression and their own corrupt aristocracy.An engrossing read, Dasamuka invites us into a far-off culture while simultaneously revealing little-known historical facts told from opposing viewpoints.

Dasamuka

Setiyono, Junaedi

Genre Fiction

Half-Japanese and half-Javanese Lasi flees from the constraints of her small village to find herself enmeshed in the political corruption of Jakarta. *** The bekisar is a fine crossbreed between jungle fowl and domestic chicken that adorns the houses of the wealthy. Lasi, whose father was a Japanese soldier, fair skinned and beautiful, is such an acquisition for a rich man in Jakarta. She is born in a village where the main source of income is tapping coconut palms for their rich sap, or nira. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she is betrayed by her husband and flees to Jakarta. She meets Mrs. Lanting, procuress for men in high government and social circles, who sells her to the rich Handarbeni. Lasi enjoys the new splendor as a much-desired ornament, but is alarmed when she discovers the marriage is a sham. Kanjat, a childhood friend, is now grown into a man. Lasi and Kanjat rediscover their affection for each other. Their bond is the village, its people and traditions. They struggle to free Lasi from a net of power, corruption, and deceit.

The Red Bekisar

Tohari, Ahmad

A stark, honest portrayal of cursed love during the Japanese occupation of Java and the struggle for Indonesian independence. *** Sulis is a young woman selling potions in Surabaya's harbor district. She meets Sujono, a coolie with dreams of becoming a freedom fighter, and whose passion for Matsumi, a geisha called to Java by a Japanese general, is destined to ruin all of them. In Potions and Paper Cranes, each tells the story of their lives during the end of World War II and Indonesia's transition from a Dutch colony to an independent republic. *** Award-winning author Lan Fang began publishing short stories in teen magazines. She soon graduated to novels and became renowned for her intense first person narratives about women in ethnic and culture conflicts. Critics have praised Lan Fang for her ability to cross the borders of gender, race, and religion. She passed away at the age of forty-one, leaving behind nine novels and many short stories much loved by readers around the world. *** Japan and Java clash and intertwine in Lan Fang's Potions and Paper Cranes, set in the old commercial center of Surabaya during the Second World War. Themes of domestic violence, misplaced romance, passionate sex, separation, and reunion drive the narrative, but it is the fate of women and children in war that is at the heart the novel. The story is told with lush and unashamedly melodramatic emotion yet remains memorably authentic. Ultimately Potions and Paper Cranes affirms the fragility of hatred, and the capacity of memory and love to endure a lifetime of separation. -George Quinn, Adjunct Professor, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University A sensitive translation of a novel that is by turns profoundly emotional and deeply violent. -Harry Aveling, Associate Professor of Asian Studies, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia Potions and Paper Cranes breaks the popular romance mold through its narrative strategy to give each character a voice...making the fictional world more complex than just a black and white dichotomy. Underneath the novel is a critique against the chauvinistic, masculine nationalist paradigm that sanctions violence against women and breaks families. Written by an Indonesian female of Chinese descent about the WWII era, the novel opens up rich material to uncover issues of historical memory, representations, identity, and transnational engagement. -Melani Budianta, Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia

Potions and Paper Cranes

Fang, Lan

When military violence destroys his childhood and family, reluctant rebel Nazir and his peers rally against the injustice. A village at the center of one of the world's richest oil fields is the setting. This insightful novel reflects the lives of Acehnese who were silenced by crimes against humanity during military operations in Aceh.

Blood Moon Over Aceh

Nur, Arafat

Secret agent Sadeli, undercover merchant Umar Yunus, and ex-journalist Ali Nurdin experience love, loss, and sacrifice during Indonesia’s revolution to overthrow Dutch colonialism.  Early 1947: In a world still reeling from World War II, Indonesians revolt against Dutch attempts to recolonize their country. Major Sadeli of the Indonesian Army Intelligence travels to Singapore disguised as a sugar merchant, tasked with establishing naval and air routes to Sumatra and Java and securing weapons and radio equipment vital to the Indonesian revolution.  His desire for Indonesia to be prosperously independent, independently prosperous, and no longer dependent on larger nations’ pity, forces him to choose between personal happiness and commitment to a higher cause.

Love, Death and Revolution

Ridley, Elizabeth

Lubis, Mochtar

In "Only a Girl" three generations of Chinese women struggle for identity against a political backdrop of the World Depression, World War II, and the Indonesian Revolution. Nanna, the matriarch of the family, strives to preserve the family's traditional Chinese values while her children are eager to assimilate into Dutch colonial society. Carolien, Nanna's youngest daughter, is fixated with the advantages to be gained through adopting a western lifestyle. She is proven wrong through her turbulent and ultimately failed marriage and by the consequences of raising her daughter in the Dutch culture. Jenny's western upbringing puts her at a disadvantage in the newly independent Indonesian state where Dutch culture is no longer revered. The unique ways in which Nanna, Carolien and Jenny face their own challenges reveal the complex tale of Chinese society in Indonesia between 1930 and 1952.

Only a Girl

Gouw, Lian

Contemporary

Pum is a loyal old dog who can smell colors. Along with Kwee, a pig with attitude, and seven-year-old Leksi, they tell the story of Mabel. As a young girl of the Dani tribe in Papua, Dutch missionaries take her to the city under the pretense of adopting her. Mabel quickly adapts to being domestic help and is eager to learn, but her request to attend school is denied. When Mabel returns to village life years later, her daughter-in-law and granddaughter, Leksi, join her. The women work in the fields all day long, and Mabel sells the fruits and vegetables in the open market. Living in Papua is a battle between tradition and the new: for the Papuan people this means leaving the land and working in the gold mining operation on the Holy Mountain, home of the spirits of the Amungme people. The mining company takes the labor from many Papuans and only gives riches to very few. Mabel holds on to the traditional way of life, and dares to speak out against injustice during a fierce election.

Daughters of Papua

Thayf, Anindita Siswanto

Footprints: Insights into Indonesia -- Stories from Dalang Publishing

Gagas, Han

British & Irish

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