With Indonesia the guest of honour at the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair there has been a decent amount of coverage -- and at Qantara.de Monika Griebeler now introduces Seven must-know authors from Indonesia (with a bonus of three dead-so-they-won't-be-able-to-attend authors, making for ten in all).
A decent introduction, and hard to argue with most of these inclusions, which include Ayu Utami (whose Saman remains one of the defining novels of the past twenty years (even as it opens, as I never fail to be amused by, overlooking (New York's) Central Park ...)); Leila Chudori, whose Home is forthcoming in English from Deep Vellum soon (see also the Modern Library of Indonesia publicity page, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk); Supernova-author Dewi ("Dee") Lestari; and The Rainbow Troops-author Andrea Hirata.
You can argue about who was overlooked -- and the most obvious name here is Eka Kurniawan, two of whose books are appearing in English this fall too (my review of Beauty is a Wound should be up soon; meanwhile see the New Direction's publicity page, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk).
As to the three bonus-selections: yes, Pramoedya Ananta Toer remains the foremost Indonesian author, the other two are also worth seeking out.
A decent introduction, and hard to argue with most of these inclusions, which include Ayu Utami (whose Saman remains one of the defining novels of the past twenty years (even as it opens, as I never fail to be amused by, overlooking (New York's) Central Park ...)); Leila Chudori, whose Home is forthcoming in English from Deep Vellum soon (see also the Modern Library of Indonesia publicity page, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk); Supernova-author Dewi ("Dee") Lestari; and The Rainbow Troops-author Andrea Hirata.
You can argue about who was overlooked -- and the most obvious name here is Eka Kurniawan, two of whose books are appearing in English this fall too (my review of Beauty is a Wound should be up soon; meanwhile see the New Direction's publicity page, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk).
As to the three bonus-selections: yes, Pramoedya Ananta Toer remains the foremost Indonesian author, the other two are also worth seeking out.