Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925-2006)

















Indonesian novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and critic. The Japanese occupation (1942-1944) and Indonesia's struggle for independence has provided the basic material for Pramoedya's writing. His best-known work is the Buru Quartet (1980-88), banned by the Suharto regime. The story is set at the turn of the 19th century and depicts the emergence of anticolonial Indonesian nationalism. Pramoedya's books have been translated into at least 28 languages.

It's Not an All Night Fair Pramoedya Ananta Toer - Author C. W. Watson - Translator C. W. Watson - Introduction by C. W. Watson - Notes by

Book: Paperback 8.26 x 5.23in 112 pages ISBN 9780143037026 26 Sep 2006 Penguin 18 - AND UP

Price: Rs 380/-

Now available for the first time in English, a classic from “a novelist who should get in line for the Nobel Prize” (Los Angeles Times)
Pramoedya Ananta Toer is Indonesia’s most celebrated writer, with over thirty works of fiction translated into over thirty languages, and the recipient of many major international awards, including the grand prize in the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize competition, Japan’s highest literary honor. Narrated in the first person in Pramoedya’s signature style, It’s Not an All Night Fair tells the deeply affecting story of a son returning home to central Java to confront the fact of his father’s death. Struggling to understand his reticent father, the son embarks on a personal quest to find value and meaning not only in his father’s life but also in his own.

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All That Is Gone Pramoedya Ananta Toer - Author

Book: Paperback 5.23 x 7.87in 272 pages ISBN 9780143034469 25 Jan 2005 Penguin 18 - AND UP

Price: Rs 480/-

The first collection of short fiction available in English from "Indonesia's Albert Camus" (San Francisco Chronicle
Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s transcendent novels have become part of the world literary canon, but it is his short fiction that originally made him famous. The first full-size collection of his short stories to appear in English, All That Is Gone draws from the author’s own experiences in Indonesia to depict characters trying to make sense of a war-torn culture haunted by colonialism, among them an eight-year-old girl soon to be married off by her parents for money and an idealistic young soldier who witnesses the savage beating of a man accused of being a spy. Though violence and brutality pervade these tales, there is present throughout a profound sense of compassion—an extraordinary combination of despair and hope that gives All That Is Gone rare power and beauty.

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The Mute's Soliloquy A MemoirPramoedya Ananta Toer - Author
Book: Paperback 5.11 x 7.95in 400 pages ISBN 9780140289046 01 Apr 2000 Penguin 18 - AND UP
Price : 500/-

In 1965, Pramoedya Ananta Toer was detained by Indonesian authorities and eventually exiled to the penal island of Buru. Without a formal accusation or trial, the onetime national hero was imprisoned on Buru for eleven years. He survived under brutal conditions, somehow managing to produce his masterwork, the four novels of the Buru Quartet, as well as the remarkable journal entries, essays, and letters that comprise this moving memoir. Reminiscent of the work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Mute's Soliloquy is a harrowing portrait of a penal colony and a heartbreaking remembrance of life before it. With a resonance far beyond its particular time and place, it is Pramoedya's crowning achievement—a passionate tribute to the freedom of the mind and a celebration of the human spirit.
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The Fugitive Pramoedya Ananta Toer - Author
Book: Paperback 5.15 x 7.71in 176 pages ISBN 9780140296525 01 Dec 2000 Penguin 18 - AND UP
Rs: 480/-

Written while Pramoedya Ananta Toer was imprisoned by the Dutch for his role in the Indonesian revolution after World War II, The Fugitive was his first major novel and the first to be published in the United States. Set during the final days of World War II, The Fugitive tells the harrowing story of a young platoon leader who has led a failed nationalist revolt against Japanese forces occupying Indonesia. Betrayed by a co-conspirator and forced to disguise himself as a beggar, he sets out to find his fiancee, while eluding the military forces who will kill him if they capture him. Combining acute political and social criticism with a gripping, deeply moving narrative, this timeless story of a soldier's return home will haunt the memories of all who read it.

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