John A. McGlynn's favorite motto was "never let the truth get in the way of a good lie" - but as is revealed in his imaginative tales of travels to Mexico, Indonesia, and other exotic ports of call, it is often in the fantastic that truths are found. Populated with characters Mark Twain would have appreciated, McGlynn's stories are those of a modern-day Everyman, and are as recognizable to an American as they would be to an Indonesian about the common nature of man. His guide ...

A fast-paced, intensely emotional drama of Indonesian life high and low, set against the tumultuous backdrop of the reformasi era, after the fall of Suharto in 1999. The Painter of Lost Souls is the story of Sito, a brilliantly gifted artist who leaves his home in a poor village in Central Java while still in his teens, to make his name and his fortune in the royal city of Jogjakarta.  Vatikiotis tells a suspenseful tale that weaves together a fascinating inside view of the art boom in ...

Before Dawn - Suddenly the Night, Lontar first publication, was released in 1987. Before Dawn, a completely revised and expanded version of this work, contains an additional thirty poems by Sapardi Djoko Damono, on of Indonesia’s most prominent poets. The writer, through the language of his poetry and its meaning, sound and rhythem, proves himself capable of depicting a highly imaginative awareness of experience. ...

I La Galigo ― a photographic and textual voyage through the creation myth of the peoples of South Sulawesi. ...

This volume includes 10 short stories and 17 poems by Indonesian exile authors. It also includes 2 short stories by a “domestic” exile writer and 2 biographical stories of former political prisoners. Taken together, the materials present part of the Indonesian exile experience, a segment of Indonesia’s social history that has been ignored for far too long. ...

Set in the tumultuous days of the mid 1960s, The Dancer describes a village community struggling to adapt to a rapidly changing world. It also provides readers with a ground-level view of the political turmoil leading up to and following the abortive Communist coup. ...

Released on the hundredth-day anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, this anthology contains poems, short stories and essays by seventeen Indonesian writers who visited or lived in New York. ...

Focusing on short stories with the theme of sexual violence towards women. It also features reproductions of social protest posters and a photographic essay on the 1999 election campaign. ...

Voices of the Puppet Masters is an in-depth look at the rod puppet theater of West Java. Lavishly illustrated with almost 200 photographs and drawings, this book is the most authoritative work ever published in English on this six hundred-year-old art form. Based on five years of intensive research in Indonesia, including hundreds of hours of discussions and interviews with puppet masters and craftsmen. The author and her Indonesian collaborator visited the artists in their homes, in ...

On November 12, 1991, the Indonesian military opened fire on East Timorese protestors in Dili, the capital of East Timor. Hundreds of people were killed and accounts of this massacre sparked international outrage. In Jakarta a cover-up began immediately: the Soeharto government declared the killings an “accident” provoked by armed provocateurs. The Indonesian mass media was cautioned to tow the official line. Seno Gumira Ajidarma, editor of Jakarta Jakarta at the time, refused to do so and was ...

Focusing on short stories by Balinese and Indonesian authors about Bali this volume offers an insiders view of the Island of the Gods. It also features reproductions of social protest posters and a photographic essay on the 1999 election campaign. Including contributions by: I Nyoman Darma Putra, Putu Arya Tirtawirya, Gde’ Aryantha Soethama, Putu Oka Sukanta, Faisal Baraas, Kipanjikusmin, Oka Rusmini, Darma Putra, Gde’ Winnyana, Mas Ruscitadewi, Bre’ Redana Putu Arya Tirtawirya, Putu ...

This book tells in a prose-journalism style, the stories of women in prison: what crimes they committed and the reasons behind their crimes. As told by Sujinah, herself a political prisoner, these short stories from of the lives of women in Tanggerang Women’s Prisostories offer insight frank insights into the position of women in Indonesia ...

The Mute’s Soliloquy. The autobiography of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, constructed from notes and letters written to his children, offers the reader a glimpse of more than the inside of a jail. He writes movingly of his own betrayal as the story of Indonesia’s betrayal. His memoir is a tribute to his family’s determination and to his unquenchable spirit and voice. Published in cooperation with Lontar Foundation. ...

Indonesia in the Suharto Years: Issues, Incidents, Images ― a large format book containing more than 500 photographs charting the history of the New Order government, with several dozen essays by key players in the incidents and events pictured therein. ...

The more than one hundred poems in this book trace the development of Indonesia’s longest-reigning poet, from before the revolution through the turbulent 1960s and finally to his current residence abroad. ...