Leila Chudori - Home

TEMPO. The annual special editions of Tempo magazine from the 1980s up until 2009.

I began to write this novel in 2006 but did not finish until 2012. I daresay it still might not be finished without the assistance of numerous friends and informants and the aid of books and music. My greatest thanks go to Indonesia’s political exiles, who together served as the inspiration for this novel and who, individually, took the time to answer my questions in meetings with them in Paris and Jakarta. I especially would like to thank the late Umar Said, the late Sobron Aidit, and Kusni Sulang, who revealed in detail to me their life tales, whose combined journey was much more difficult and far more treacherous than is depicted in this novel. Visits to Indonesia Restaurant, which they opened on Rue de Vaugirard in 1982, and walks on the campus of Sorbonne University proved essential for the scenes set in Paris. Amarzan Loebis, my “walking encyclopedia” at Tempo magazine, where the two of us work, was kind enough to relate his own personal story to me and to read the initial draft of this novel. His critical eye for detail is much appreciated. Leo Sutanto, who provided moral support for me from the very beginning of the writing process, also gave me his unflagging trust, for which I will always be indebted, as I will be also to my friends at Sinemart: Novi, Mitzy, and Cindy Christina Sutanto. Then there is Mariana Renata Dantec, who helped to bring the character of Lintang Utara to life with her thorough descriptions of student life at the Sorbonne. Other friends in Europe — Ibarruri Sudharsono and Johanna Lederer, in Paris, and Ibrahim Isa in Amsterdam — I owe thanks and many fine meals.

In Jakarta, I am indebted to Dayani Svetlana and Djoko Sri Moeljono, who illuminated for me the dark days that this city went through, and also to Goenawan Mohamad, a co-founder of Tempo , who, in 2005, first proposed to me the idea of exploring the lives of the families of former political prisoners for a special edition of the magazine to commemorate the events of September 30, 1965—an idea that then became an annual tradition for the magazine in its quest to make heard the voices that had been suppressed in the decades since that time. I owe much to my fellow employees at Tempo , from the library staff up to the editorial board — Arif Zulkifli, Seno Joko Suyono, Hermien Y. Kleden, L.R. Baskoro, Toriq Hadad, and Bambang Harymurti — for their research into and their reports on that seminal time in 1965.

At Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia, the Indonesian publisher of Pulang , I must thank Pax Benedanto, Christina M. Udiani, and Candra Gautama, Wendie Arstwenda, Bintang Siahaan, and Esti WW, for the freedom they gave and the forbearance they showed me. To Dian Sastrowardoyo, Wisnu Darmawan, Arifaldi Dasril, and Renny Fernandez, stalwart friends who were always ready to give me a boost when I was flagging, I extend my unending thanks. The same is true for my French language informants — Gracia Asriningish, Winda Fitriastuti, and Noorca Massardi — and for the historians, Bonnie Triyana and Asvi Warman Adam, who believe in historical accuracy and truth.

Additional thanks go to my friends who offered much valuable input during the course of writing this novel: Mira Lesmana, Riri Riza, Joko Anwar, Arifaldi Dasril; my invaluable research assistant, Ulin Ni’am Yusron; Robertus Robet, a good friend who explained the map of the 1998 student movement; and friends who supplied me with many of the additional resource materials I needed, including Siti Gretiani and Paramita Mohamad. To Todung Mulya Lubis, Rio Lassatrio, and Syarafina Vidyadhana, the words “thank you” is not enough for all the help they gave to me.

To John H. McGlynn of the Lontar Foundation, who published my first collection of stories in English, and who took on the task of translating this novel into English, I have undying respect but also must thank him for introducing my work to Pontas Literary and Film Agency, which now represents me abroad. At the agency, I give special thanks to the Maria Cardona Serra and Marina Penalva, and to Anna Soler Pont, founder of the agency, as well.

I proffer loving thanks to my parents, Willy and Mohammad Chudori, and my older sister and brother, Zuly Chudori and Rizal Bukhari Chudori, for having taught me at a very young age that literature is no less important than food, knowledge, and faith, as a major sustenance of life. And finally and forever, I give my thanks to Rain Chudori-Soerjoatmodjo, the sun that brightens my life, for it was because of her I began to write again.

LEILA S. CHUDORI, was born in Jakarta in December 1962 and began to write at a young age. Her first stories were published when she was just twelve in several children’s magazines. She also published several collections of stories when just a teen.

Leila’s college education included stints at Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific (United World Colleges) in Victoria, Canada, and Trent University, also in Canada, where she studied political science and comparative development studies. Even while going to school, however, she continued to write and publish in the Indonesian literary journals, Zaman, Horison, Matra, Sastra , and Menagerie as well as in Solidarity of the Philippines and Tenggara from Malaysia.

Her first collection of short stories for adults, Malam Terakhir , published by Pustaka Utama Grafiti in 1989, was later translated and published in German, under the title Die Letzte Nacht by Horlemman Verlag. Since 1989 she has worked at Tempo weekly news magazine, first as a journalist and later as an editor. She is also a film critic and an award-winning screenplay writer.

In 2009, Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia published Leila’s most recent collection of stories, this one titled 9 from Nadira . In 2013, the Lontar Foundation published a collection of translations of her stories under the title The Longest Kiss. In 2012, Leila published her first novel, Pulang [Home]. A year later, she was awarded the Khatulistiwa Literary prize for best prose work. Since then, between frequent appearances at literary events in Indonesia and abroad (Australia, Holland, France, and Malaysia), she has been working on two novels, one on the young Indonesian activists who “disappeared” in the months leading up to the downfall of President Soeharto in 1998, and the second a prequel to Home titled Namaku Alam [My name is Alam].

JOHN H. McGLYNN, lives in Jakarta where, in 1987, he co-founded the Lontar Foundation, the only organization in the world devoted to the publication of Indonesian literature in translation. Through Lontar, he has ushered into publication close to two hundred books on Indonesian literature and culture. Also through Lontar, he has produced twenty-four films on Indonesian writers and more than thirty films on Indonesian performance traditions.

McGlynn is the Indonesian country editor for Manoa , a literary journal published by the University of Hawaii, and for Words Without Borders , a virtual literary journal. He is a member of the International Commission of the Indonesian Publishers Association (IKAPI), PEN International-New York, and the Association of Asian Studies. He is also a trustee of AMINEF, the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation, which oversees the Fulbright and Humphrey scholarship programs in Indonesia.

DEAR READERS,

Deep Vellum Publishing is a 501c3 nonprofit literary arts organization founded in 2013 with the threefold mission to publish international literature in English translation; to foster the art and craft of translation; and to build a more vibrant book culture in Dallas and beyond. We seek out literary works of lasting cultural value that both build bridges with foreign cultures and expand our understanding of what literature is and what meaningful impact literature can have in our lives.