![]() As we follow the unfolding of the narrative, watching Kurniawan peel back layer after layer of grudges, half-remembered incidents and surprising events, we meet many characters so vivid and robust that they seem at times to lean from the pages and hoick us bodily into their concerns. Opening with the savage murder of an ageing villager by the young man, Margio, who has been dating his daughter, this novel pours forth a stream of delights. I’m pleased to report that Man Tiger does so with ease. Could any novel really live up to such a fanfare? I turned to page one with a sinking heart. ![]() Despite describing the English translation of the title as ‘slightly awkward’, he was adamant that Kurniawan was Indonesia’s ‘most original living writer of novels and short stories’. Furthermore, when I clicked open my e-copy, I was confronted by another endorsement in the form of an effusive introduction by celebrated scholar Benedict Anderson, who died earlier this month. His latest novel to be translated into English, Man Tiger, recently received a glowing review in the UK Guardian, which described it as a Javanese subversion of the crime fiction genre. Kent isn’t the only person to have been wowed by Kurniawan. She mentioned a few weeks ago that she had just discovered Indonesian author Eka Kurniawan and highly recommended his work. ![]() This was a recommendation from friend and fellow writer, Trilby Kent. ![]()
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