ARTICLE: You should read Indonesia’s THIS EARTH OF MANKIND In January, 2014 Joshua Oppenheimer’s film on Indonesia, The Act of Killing was nominated for an Academy Award, reflecting its penetration into mainstream film watching. Many people will be introduced to Indonesia by this vivid study of the country’s ruling lumpen elite. Another, very different, introduction to Indonesia might be by reading Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind, Penguin Books). As of 2013 it is thirty years since the Penguin English language edition of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s historical novel, This Earth of Mankind, was published in 1983. The sequels to this novel, Child of All Nations, Footsteps, and House of Glass were published over the following several years, all by Penguin in Australia and the United Kingdom. They were launched into the United States by William Morrow, Hyperion and Penguin in the 1990s. As their translator, it is very pleasing to see that they are still in print 30 years later, having had many reprints. In 2014, the four novels are likely to appear as eBooks, with Penguin USA buying the eBook rights. They appear already to be advertised as eBooks for Kindle on Amazon. maxlaneonline/2014/04/30/article-you-should-read-indonesias-this-earth-of-mankind-by-max-lane/
Posted on: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 04:04:44 +0000