republikbabi

Have been absent for a while since I’m busy with my work, but there are also some activity to be shared in indonesian booksphere. Here’s what I could share about about Indonesia books in 2009:

Best selling books: Perahu Kertas (Dee)

If you are wondering what is the hottest cake in indonesian books right now, it’s probably Dewi Lestari newest “Perahu Kertas”. The author herself is a best-selling author with her novel Supernova. Perahu Kertas (which means paper boat) is lighter novel which probably stays in the middle between literature (sastra) and pop novel (which always put as B-ranked novel by so-called literature expert ’sastrawan’ here in Indonesia).

She actually writes this novel in 55 days. It was published previously in digital format by XL before it finally published in book form.

price: Rp. 70,000 ($7)
genre: pop
my rate: 7.5/10

The story is about a dreamy girl named Kugy and a man named Keenan. Kugy is a carefree girl who is dreaming to become folk stories writer, and Keenan is a man who wants to follow his dream to become painter. Both unaware that they are attracted to each other at first sight, but they couldnt admit it to each other which makes the story full of soap opera.

It will remind you of Korean drama archetypal pattern: a clumsy girl (actually a briliant one) meets a nearly perfect man who inherits rich business from his family and they are starting to be attracted with each other. I have seen worse novels which makes the story completely rubbish, but thankfully this novel doesn’t fall at the same mistake and ended being typical, forgetful novel.

What this make novel better is how Dewi Lestari gracefully shakes our emotion with interaction of each characters in the novel. There are some scenes that could make you laugh really hard and some might make you teary eyes really fast. This novel is really “gado gado” full of laugh, sad, romance, etc. I remembered reading one touching scene where Kugy had quarell with her best friend after 3 years of “cold war”, but only in a zap, the author put a comedic scene and I start laughing again. Brillante.

What does Perahu Kertas has to do with the story? The dreamy girl, Kugy used to think she’s agent of sea-deity Neptune, and she sails paper boats to the ocean, telling all her thoughts to the ocean. She also shares this story to Keenan, who shares same zodiac sign with her, and the paper boat will eventually play major role to reunite these two.

This novel actually was written before Supernova, so it’s very different than her recent works. I could recommend this for these who are looking for pop novels that doesnt suck with the overused cliche and all. I read this book for 2 days and I really enjoy it, just dont expect something extraordinary of it. 

Where to buy Indonesian novels?

Also for these who are looking for english-translated Indonesian novel in Indonesia, you could look for discounts at Periplus at Pondok Indah Mal. I actualy saw Ayu Utami’sSaman for price Rp. 90,000 (9$). I would probably have bought it if I had more money to spend, but recently I have been reading a lot of eurasian literatures book and anything related to dutch-east-indies.  .

Incase you dont know Ayu Utami, she’s a famous feminist, novelist, writer and best known for writing Saman which breaks Taboo about sexuality in Indonesian literature. ever since she wrote Saman, there are a lot of woman writer who write about sexuality in our literature. She’s an influential figure in Indonesia, and last year, her novel Bilangan Fu won the Khatulistiwa Literary Award 2008.

And my next novel is…

My 2nd novel is on a way to be published by the end of year or next year by a publisher from Jogjakarta, it’s title gonna be Last Anthropos (tentative). A science fiction based on alternative history of Indonesia in period of 2100. In 2100, the humans disappeared from the planet because the wish of one woman and the journey of one child.

And how all of this gonna happen? Just wait till it published, I have received positive feedback from my first readers, so I hope people could enjoy it as much as I do .

You could read several of my english short stories based on my common myth in facebook (friends only, sorry, because I’m not confident enough to share these to outsiders)

1. Conversation with Shepherd of Mind
2. A Time for Gaia (or Goodreads)
3. Mahamanipadma ~The Lotus of Divine Mind~
4. Diarunûanmå (Tablet of True Names)

Everyone who have read, I would really appreciate constructive comments and feedbacks since english is not my native language but I have ambition to write a novel in english.

Khatulistiwa Literary Awards 2009

And for these who are interested to watch Khatulistiwa Literary Awards 2009, the names have been mentioned. (KLA is also one prestigious literature award, they pick three winner. $10,000 for prose category, $10,000 poem cateogory, and $2,500 for young writer who published their first novels).

My novel was nominated last year, I didnt win but I think it was honorable tp be put in the list. Ayu Utami won the prose category though she didnt attend the event herself.

Now if you excuse myself, I’m currently in a very good mood to continue my novel.

• December 12, 2008 -- [Book] Jakarta Arts Council Literary Fair Writing Competition 2008 Winner (0)
• December 6, 2008 -- [Info] Malam Anugerah Sayembara Menulis Novel DKJ 2008 (1)
• November 13, 2008 -- And the winner is… (17)
• November 2, 2008 -- Wawancara Radio Mustika FM dan Progres Novel Kedua (5)
• September 6, 2008 -- [Book] Injil Yudas (37)