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Saman

Saman

Author(s): Ayu Utami

Location(s): Sumatra

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): Modern

Location

Content

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.

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Book Reviews

Lead Review

This book is solidly anchored in Indonesian society with all its taboos. (Luc Reynaert Amazon)

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