Journeys Through Shadows

by Dewi Anggraeni

When Maryati leaves her village in Central Java to live in Melbourne with her Australian husband Trevor, she suffers the intense pain of separation from her baby son. She soon realises that Trevor would never be able to accept that his innocent Maryati already had a son from an earlier casual liaison.
Journeys through shadows takes the reader through Maryati's eventual breakdown and through the satanic landscape into which her friend Eni is cast by an act of sorcery.

244 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 1998

About the author

Dewi Anggraeni adalah penulis fiksi dan nonfiksi, yang tinggal bersama sebagian keluarganya di Melbourne, Australia. Tulisan tulisan Dewi, dalam bentuk buku, artikel, kolom, dan esai terbit dalam dua bahasa, Inggris dan Indonesia, di Australia, Indonesia, Inggris, Hongkong, Malaysia, Korea Selatan, dan Amerika Serikat. Sebelum pemberedelan Tempo pada 1994, Dewi adalah koresponden Tempo di Australia. Sesudah itu ia bekerja untuk Forum Keadilan dan The Jakarta Post. Pada 1998 Dewi kembali menjadi kontributor Tempo yang memulai penerbitannya lagi.

Karya-karya fiksinya dalam bentuk buku antara lain Snake, Journeys through Shadows, Neighbourhood Tales, Stories of Indian Pacific, Parallel Forces, dan The Root of All Evil. Buku- buku nonfiksinya adalah Mereka Bilang Aku China: Jalan Mendaki Menjadi Bagian Bangsa (versi bahasa Inggrisnya Breaking the Stereotype: Chinese Indonesian Women Tell Their Stories), Dreamseekers: Indonesian Women as Domestic Workers in Asia, dan Who Did This to Our Bali?

Breaking the Stereotype ditulisnya dengan dukungan logistik nonmoneter dari Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Stories of Indian Pacific dengan bantuan dana dari The Australia Council for the Arts, dan Journeys through Shadows dengan bantuan dana dari Arts Victoria, Australia. Sedangkan Dreamseekers didanai penuh oleh International Labour Organisation (ILO). Pada saat ini Dewi sedang menulis novel.

Reviews

[Freddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm fascinated by how tuyuls and black magic are casually woven into realism of this novel. The language used is straightforward and not much pretentious embellishment is employed - which is something I enjoy reading. While the novel occasionally leans towards melodramatic romance, it also includes interesting commentary on the intersection between gender, race/nationality, and wealth, especially regarding its Indonesian female characters.