Beauty is a wound

The life of the fictional Halimunda's most sought-after prostitute, Dewi Ayu, and her four daughters is marked by rape, incest, murder, and ghosts, often vengeful. Cunning, fearless, and resourceful, Dewi rises from the grave after 21 years to tell her own story and unravel some mysteries. But perhaps the main reason for her strong desire to return to life is to visit her fourth daughter, whom she gave birth to before her death. Her name is Beauty, but she was blessed with the ugliness that Dewi so desperately desired to free her family from the curse of beauty. In telling this story, Eka Kurniawan, the acclaimed Indonesian writer, offers a scathing critique of his young nation's troubled past: the greed of colonialism; the chaotic struggle for independence; the Japanese occupation; the murder of a million "communists" in 1965, followed by three decades of Suharto's despotic rule. Combining folklore, satire, and the making of Indonesia, Kurniawan's distinctive voice, inspired by Melville and Gogol, brings originality and relevance to contemporary literature and offers readers the delight of the lush language used to describe carnage while simultaneously championing the strength needed to survive.