Saman is a story filtered through the lives of its feisty female protagonists and the enigmatic "hero" Saman. It is at once an exposé of the oppression of plantation workers in South Sumatra, a lyrical quest to understand the place of religion and spirituality in contemporary lives, a playful exploration of female sexuality and a story about love in all its guises, while touching on all of Indonesia's taboos: extramarital sex, political repression and the relationship between Christians and Muslims. Saman has taken the Indonesian literary world by storm and sold over 100,000 copies in the Indonesian language, and is now available for the first time in English. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ayu Utami was born in Bogor, grew up in Jakarta and obtained her bachelor degree in Literature Studies from University of Indonesia. She worked as a journalist for Matra, Forum Keadilan, and D&R. Not long after the New Order regime closed Tempo, Editor, and Detik, she participated in the founding of Indonesia's Alliance of Independent Journalists to protest the closure of those three weeklys. Currently she is working for the cultural journal Kalam, and at Teater Utan Kayu. Saman was awarded the Prince Claus Award in the year 2000.

"Inspirational historical romance"--Spine.

Papers presented at conferences on ASEAN poetry in 2015 and 2016.

This book aims to describe aspects of the Indonesian language as spoken by educated Jakartans in everyday interactions. This style of language is in many ways significantly different from the formal language of government and education, to the extent that it deserves separate consideration. While formal Indonesian has been the subject of a considerable amount of description very little attention has been paid to informal styles of the language. The variety described here, Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian, is the prestige variety of colloquial Indonesian and is becoming the standard informal style. The description and texts in following chapters are drawn from recordings of natural speech of educated people living in Jakarta . While the book aims to inform those with a background in linguistics the needs of teachers and learners with little or no knowledge of linguistics is always borne in mind. The work thus does not consider theoretical linguistic issues nor use technical terms which would not be readily understood by most readers.

BERTEMU Iqbal merupakan perkara terindah dalam hidup Dalila. Lelaki itu terlalu sempurna di mata dan hatinya. Iqbal kacak, berkarisma dan mempunyai aura yang memikat. Tetapi ada sesuatu yang mencetus rasa curiga Dalila. Siapa Iqbal sebenarnya? Jejaka itu terlalu perahsia. Entah kenapa, Iqbal ke luar negara hilang tanpa khabar berita. Dalila tenggelam punca. Langkah jejaka itu tidak dapat dijejak. Sendirian dia mengekang kesedihan yang bertandang. Dipertemukan dengan Hilman oleh si ayah ibarat air diminum terasa duri, nasi dimakan terasa sekam. Agenda tersirat seorang ayah dapat ditelah. Rupa-rupanya, Hilman adalah anak kekasih lamanya. Namun, Dalila akur jika itu sudah suratan. Apatah lagi Hilman berperibadi mulia. Lima hari sebelum sah menjadi suri hidup Hilman, Iqbal tiba-tiba muncul di depan mata! Dalila ingin meraung sekuat hati. Tapi dia tidak mampu mengubah keadaan. Dia serba salah.

Setelah ÒmembunuhÓ seseorang, apakah kita masih bisa ÒhidupÓ? Sejak kematian Arthur, kehidupan Liz dan keluarganya seolah ikut mati. Tak ada lagi kehangatan maupun kebahagiaan. Muak dengan kehidupannya, Liz merencanakan pelarian menuju kebebasan. Liz berkenalan dengan Andika Gautama, kakak dari seorang remaja penderita autisme. Perkenalan itu membawa Liz ke Balikpapan, tempat ia menyanggupi untuk bekerja sebagai terapis Finn, adik Andika. Bagi Andika, Liz tidak hanya memenuhi semua kriteria menjadi terapis Finn, tetapi juga mengisi ruang kosong di hatinya. Bagi Finn, Liz adalah harapan setelah dunianya hilang saat kematian ibunya. Dan, bagi Liz, Andika dan Finn adalah kunci mendapatkan uang demi kehidupan baru dan memaafkan diri sendiri atas kematian Arthur. Masing-masing berjuang menyembuhkan diri dari luka. Namun, jika tiga tragedi ini bersatu, akankah ada keajaiban atau justru lebih banyak musibah terjadi pada mereka?