ABOUT THIS BOOK

Winner of the Humanities in Translation Prize

The Book of Mating is a masterfully translated collection of stories in which Indonesian women explore the full spectrum of mating: marital, sexual, and spiritual; forced and free; transcendent, ruinous, and mundane. Laksmi Pamuntjak portrays both the constraints and opportunities facing women caught between the enduring restrictions of local norms and hierarchies and the tantalizing promises of globalized modern life, between internalized myths and social realities.

An experimental melding of Pamuntjak’s creative, journalistic, and activist work, these stories read as urgent dispatches from the Indonesian archipelago and diaspora—and as universal narratives of women’s lived experiences. Annie Tucker’s nuanced translation takes us from the prison island of Buru and the Bogor Botanical Gardens to Paris’s Left Bank, offering a polyphonic testament to the universal fight for women’s autonomy over their bodies and their lives.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

LAKSMI PAMUNTJAK is a bilingual Indonesian novelist, poet, journalist, and culinary critic. Her debut novel, Amba (The Question of Red), was praised by The Economist and won Germany’s LiBeraturpreis, and her novel Fall Baby won the Singapore Book Award for Best Literary Work.

ANNIE TUCKER is an award-winning writer and translator.

REVIEWS

"Laksmi is a steady, deliberate narrator. She draws you in with quiet conversations and fleeting dreams, only to submerge you in a tide of mounting tension. Behind her elegant prose lies a haunting ability to peel back the layers of internal and political ghosts, making every hurt feel deeply personal." —Eka Kurniawan, author of The Dog Meows, the Cat Barks

“For three decades, Laksmi Pamuntjak has chronicled life in Indonesia, one of the most populous and diverse countries in the world. Here, in perhaps her most intimate and powerful work so far, she presents the lives of women navigating the tides of politics and history. Full of love, violence, joy and turbulence, The Book of Mating is raw, powerful and as full of contrasts as Indonesia itself.” —Tash Aw, author of The South

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Author’s Introduction
Book 1. Sleeping with a Famous Artist
Book 2. Mayan Blue
Book 3. The Tale of Mukaburung
Book 4. Rosa and Her Four Men
Book 5. My Brother’s Wife
Book 6. Anna and Her Daughter’s Partner
Book 7. The Eight P.M. Murders
Book 8. Adoration
Book 9. Esmeralda’s Prison
Book 10. Cheating for Love
Book 11. A Declaration of Marriage
Book 12. The Korean Dormitory
Translator's Note
Acknowledgments