Well, I'm flattered that my presence here should have aroused such interest in this part of the world.

I'm currently reading Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer (familiarly known as Pak Pram -- Pak more or less equals Mr.), who is reputed to be Indonesia's greatest living writer and whose name regularly appears on the Who's Going to Get the Nobel Prize This Year gossip circuit. He was a political prisoner under Soeharto and was exiled to the prison island of Buru -- not a nice place. While there he entertained his fellow prisoners with a serial story, later written down as The Buru Quartet, of which Bumi Manusia is the first part.

It's been translated into English as This Earth of Mankind . It's a real stretch for my vocabulary. The story is about a young native Indonesian, granted the privilege of being educated in the Dutch colonial education system at the end of the 19th century, and his involvement with the family of Ngai Ontosoroh, the rich mistress of a Dutchman.

There is a website devoted to Pak Pram's life and works at:

http://www.radix.net/~bardsley/prampage.html

Bingley

Bingley