Since his debut novel Beauty Is A Wound in 2002, Indonesian writer Eka Kurniawan has made himself a name internationally. His writing draws on the myths and beliefs of his country while combining earthliness and poetry, magic and realism.
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Eka Kurniawan – Indonesia’s Magical Author
Eka Kurniawan was born in Tasikmalaya, West Java, Until the age of ten he lived with his maternal grandparents. It was there he was introduced to story-telling, a old relative would sit on the porch and entertain the children with strange and magical tales. Later he moved to live with his parents in the small coastal town of Pangandaran. He discovered books as there was a small book lender in the town who lent cheap novels.
Kurniawan studied philosophy at university in Yogyakarta and around this time began writing. His first novel Cantik Itu Luka (Beauty is a Wound) was published in 2002. When this was eventually translated to English in 2015 it was longlisted for the International Booker Prize.
Beauty Is a Wound was included in the list of 100 notable books by The New York Times. The use of magic realism in the book has led to comparisons to Gabriel García Márquez. Kurniawan has insisted that Beauty Is a Wound is neither a historical novel nor a book about Indonesian history. Kurniawan’s style of “approaching social concerns at an angle rather than head-on, with hefty doses of surrealism and wry humour” also draws comparisons to Haruki Murakami. He has been described as “Indonesia’s finest writer since Pramoedya Ananta Toer
In 2004 the author published his 2nd novel Lelaki Harimau, which also appeared in English in 2015 under the title Man Tiger. The book is set in a rural area at the edge of a small town on the southern coast of Java, which is shattered by a brutal murder. Kurniawan proves himself a master of psychological analysis, as he peels away layer after layer of the perpetrator through the depiction his life circumstances. Ultimately revealed beneath the courteous appearance of a young hunter is the spirit of a white tiger, with whom he is obsessed.
Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is the third novel by Eka Kurniawan which was originally published in Indonesian in 2014 as Seperti Dendam, Rindu Harus Dibayar Tuntas. The English translation by Annie Tucker was released in 2017.
In 2016, Palari Films announced a film adaptation of Eka Kurniawan’s book Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash to be directed by Edwin, who also wrote the screenplay with Kurniawan. The film was released 2021 at the 74th Locarno Film Festival, where it won the top prize of Golden Leopard for Best Film.
Kurniawan also writes a lot of short fiction and has published a number of collections in Indonesian. To date only one of these has been translated, the wonderful Kitchen Curse which was released by Verso books in 2019.
Eka Kurniawan currently lives in Jakarta, and is married to fellow writer and screenwriter Ratih Kumala.
Best Eka Kurniawan Books to Read
Man Tiger
Kurniawan’s novel blends epic narrative with magical realism. This brief tale gives a fascinating insight into rural Indonesion life
In a small Indonesian town, the residents are astonished when a usually quiet Margio kills a man named Anwar Sadat. The town’s commander doesn’t buy the story, but Margio confesses to the deed. According to him, a ghostly tiger living inside his body is the culprit.
Beauty is a Wound
One stormswept afternoon, after twenty-one years of being dead, the beautiful Indonesian prostitute Dewi Ayu rise from her grave to avenge a curse placed on her family. Amidst the orange groves and starfruit trees, her children and grandchildren have been living out lives of violence, incest, murder, madness and heartbreak, They are creatures of breathtaking beauty – all but one of them, whose ugliness in unparalleled. And Beauty is her name.
Set in the mythical Indonesian town of Halimunda, Beauty is a Wound is a bawdy, epic take of fearsome women and weak-willed men, communist ghosts and vengeful spirits. chaste princesses and ruthless bandit. A fantastical masterpiece in which darkness and light dance hand in hand.
Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash
Ajo Kawir is one of the toughest fighters in the Javanese underworld, his fearlessness matched only by his unquenchable thirst for brawling. But the young thug is driven by a painful secret – he is impotent. When he finally meets his match in the shape of the fearsomely beautiful bodyguard Iteung, Ajo is left bruised, battered and overjoyed – he has fallen in love. But will he ever be able to make Iteung happy with a pecker that won’t stand up?
Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is a gloriously pulpy tale of bloody fists, broken hearts and dueling Jakarta truckers.
Kitchen Curse
Eka Kurniawan’s freewheeling imagination explores the turbulent dreams of an ex-prostitute, the hapless life of a perpetual student, victims of an anticommunist genocide, the travails of an elephant, even the vengeful fantasies of a stone. Dark, sexual, scatological, violent, and mordantly funny, these fractured fables span city and country, animal and human, myth and politics.
Like nothing else, Kurniawan’s stories bury themselves in the mind. His characters and insights are at once hauntingly familiar, peculiar, and twisted.
If you enjoyed our profile of Eka Kurniawan, check out our selection of the Best SE Asian Books to Read
