Matt Rees's Blog - Posts Tagged "indonesia"

I’ve been extraordinarily impressed with the job my Indonesian publisher is doing with my Palestinian crime novels. It also turns out I have something in common with a popular former President of Indonesia.

My editor at Dioma Publishing in Malang, Indonesia, Herman Kosasih filled me in on a couple of events they organized there for the launch of A Grave in Gaza (it’s the second of my Palestinian novels, but Dioma decided to publish it first; they’ve purchased rights to the first four books). That includes a debate at the Islamic University in Malang.

This is particularly important to me because Indonesia is the first Muslim country in which my books have been published. As the hero of the books is a Palestinian Muslim, I’m very keen that his story should be read by Muslims around the world.

Here’s a little of what Herman wrote to me about the debate at the Islamic University: “It was great. There were Quran readings, prayers, speeches. Then the Indonesian National Anthem and the Hymn of Pergerakan Mahasiswa Islam Indonesia, which is the Association of Indonesian Islamic Students. Present were the Vice Rector of the university and the representatives of the movement throughout Malang. 200 people attended it. Wow. I was very surprised to see them all. Out of my imagination.”

Mine, too. Wonderful news.

Herman continues: “There were many questions including whether the author had a plan concerning Palestine and Israel when he wrote this novel. They agreed that cruelty and murders can be done by people with various religions. The atmosphere of religion influenced the discussion.

“The dean of the Law Faculty said that your idea in the novel is similar with what Gus Dur has said concerning Middle East affairs. Gus Dur is a former president of Indonesia, a proponent of minority rights in Indonesia and a champion of religious dialogue. He is much beloved among the students who most of them are followers of NU, a branch of Indonesian Islam. They are usually moderate and traditional.

“I concluded that they appreciate your novel. I also made some friends there.”


It’s clear to me that the debate in Indonesia was thoughtful and carried out with consideration for other people as humans – rather than in a spirit of religious antagonism. I’m very touched by that.

In another email, Herman told me: “On May 15, 2009 we had a kind of talk show in Jakarta in one of the biggest bookstore chains in Indonesia for A Grave in Gaza. The speaker was a journalist who has visited Middle East.”

Herman also sent me a lovely set of playing cards from Bali. I’m using them to teach my little son how to count.

It's always a thrill for me to receive the covers of my forthcoming novels from my UK publisher Atlantic Books. They have a series feel in that there's a continuity to the design. Each one seems to get better. Here's the cover of THE FOURTH ASSASSIN, which will be published next February. I received it from my delightful editor in London Sarah Norman just this week.


In THE FOURTH ASSASSIN, Omar Yussef leaves his regular haunts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He travels to New York for a UN conference, he's eager to visit his youngest son, Ala, who lives in Bay Ridge, a Brooklyn neighborhood with a large Palestinian community. He arrives at Ala's apartment to find the door ajar and a headless body in one of the beds. He's initially terrified that the dead man is his son, but soon Ala arrives and identifies the body as that of one of his roommates. He's convinced that his other roommate is the killer. But when the cops show up, Ala refuses to give an alibi and is arrested. Desperate to prove his son's innocence, Omar Yussef investigates. The murderer has left clues that refer to the Assassins, a medieval Shiite sect. When they were teenagers, Ala and his roommates had a club by that name. What's the connection? As Omar Yussef delves deeper, he uncovers a deadly international conspiracy.

On the subject of covers: My first Palestinian crime novel is just out in Indonesia (the second in the series A GRAVE IN GAZA was published there earlier this year). My wonderful editor at Dioma in Malang, Herman Kosasih, sent me copies of THE COLLABORATOR OF BETHLEHEM with, frankly, one of my favorite covers produced anywhere in the world for any of my books.

There are many theories as to why Scandinavian crime writers prosper in the bestseller lists. But I know why it is. Ikea.

I just bought a new set of Ikea shelves for my office. I’ll get into exactly how that has altered the configuration of my workspace, but at this point let me just note that it makes my writing room seem a thousand times more orderly, less cluttered. As any feng shui expert would tell you, a disorganized room will yield fractured thoughts and fill the mind of its occupier with distraction. For a writer who needs to focus on his manuscript and whose manuscript requires a consistent vision, that’s a bad thing.

So these shelves, produced by a company based in Sweden, have no doubt created the clean, neat spaces Scandinavian crime writers like Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbo need to write their clean, neat stories.

I was in need of a little neatening in my office, because my research had started to create clutter. There were piles of books on Mozart, music and the Austrian Empire related to my forthcoming historical crime novel MOZART’S LAST ARIA. Then new mountains of books and documents for CARAVAGGIO ON FIRE, my novel about the Italian artist which will be out in a year and a half.

But that’s not all. For my Mozart book, I learned the piano. So suddenly there’s a piano in my office. For Caravaggio, I’ve been learning to paint with oils, so there’s an easel and painting implements and canvases jostling for space with my guitars and bass guitars and amplifiers (those aren’t research; it’s a hobby).

Add to that the large numbers of foreign editions of my books I’m delighted to receive when I’m published in Indonesia and Romania and Iceland, but which I’m unable to give to friends due to the fact that I only know one Icelander, my Romanian landlord already read the book, and the only Indonesian I know is my editor and of course he has already read the book, too.

Read the rest of this post on my blog The Man of Twists and Turns.