Kaplan Adam

by Eka Kurniawan, Seda Çıngay Mellor (Translator)

Ressam Enver Sedat’ın cesedi bulunduktan kısa süre sonra polis, katilin o olduğundan hiç kuşku duymaksızın Margio’yu tutukladı. Fakat uysal ve saygılı bir delikanlı olarak bilinen Margio’yu bir adamın boğazına dişlerini geçirip onu böyle vahşice katletmeye iten şey, kasaba halkının merakını celbeden bir sır olarak kalacaktı.

Şairane, küstah üslubu ve politik tavrıyla Kaplan Adam, trajik ve acımasız bir evlilikle bağlanan iki sorunlu ailenin ve o kadere damgasını vuran, bedeninde doğaüstü, dişi bir beyaz kaplanı gizlemek dışında tamamen sıradan bir delikanlının, Margio’nun hikâyesi. Aynı zamanda yakın geçmişindeki şiddet ve istismarın etkileriyle boğuşan, adalete susamış, efsaneler ile gerçek dünyanın birbirine girdiği, kırsal ve yoksul Endonezya'nın cüretkâr portresi.

Genres: Fiction, Magical Realism, Asia, Indonesian Literature, Contemporary, Novels, Fantasy

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Eka Kurniawan was born in Tasikmalaya in 1975 and completed his studies in the Faculty of Philosophy at Gadjah Mada University. He has been described as the “brightest meteorite” in Indonesia’s new literary firmament, the author of two remarkable novels which have brought comparisons to Salman Rushdie, Gabriel García Márquez and Mark Twain; the English translations of these novels were both published in 2015—Man Tiger by Verso Books, and Beauty is a Wound by New Directions in North America and Text Publishing in Australia. Kurniawan has also written movie scripts, a graphic novel, essays on literature and two collections of short stories. He currently resides in Jakarta.

Eka Kurniawan, seorang penulis sekaligus desainer grafis. Menyelesaikan studi dari Fakultas Filsafat Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta. Karyanya yang sudah terbit adalah empat novel: Cantik itu Luka (2002), Lelaki Harimau (2004), Seperti Dendam Rindu Harus Dibayar Tuntas (2014), dan O (2016); empat kumpulan cerita pendek: Corat-coret di Toilet (2000), Gelak Sedih (2005), Cinta Tak Ada Mati (2005), dan Perempuan Patah Hati yang Kembali Menemukan Cinta Melalui Mimpi (2015); serta satu karya non fiksi: Pramoedya Ananta Toer dan Sastra Realisme Sosialis (1999).

Reviews

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This small novel turned out to be one of the most moving reads of 2015 for me. It took a while for me to accept its rhythms and to realize that this book has been completely misunderstood by anyone who thinks the tiger living within Margio has anything to do with making this a book of fantasy--this novel instead feels like a glimpse of the real world, from the perspective of those living in a small village on an Indonesian coastline. It feels like a place where belief in the supernatural fits easily into the natural world. It's a place full of life, where for instance a garden grows so abundantly that the village feels in danger of being taken over at any moment by the jungle; where the spirits of the dead make their demands on the living; where animals both natural and supernatural inhabit the empty places just next to civilization.

It's also the story of how one young man comes to a breaking point when confronted with the suffering of his family and loved ones. It's a story grounded in a squalid reality, for all its supernatural overtones. The lives of the women in this novel in particular are lovingly drawn, breathtakingly humane, heartbreaking. The style is digressive and yet deeply affecting, as, one by one, the author dwells on what makes each individual unique and worthy of having his/her story told. The village itself is as much a character in this brief novel as any of the people inhabiting it and the lifelong relationships between characters unfold in a pace that is somehow both languid and breathless. In the end what feels digressive suddenly becomes central to understanding its extraordinary conclusion.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the opening line we are told that one man brutally kills another. We don’t understand why until the very last page. In between, there’s a haunting, rambling, poetic story being told from several directions, all of it as tense and sweltering as the coastal village that is the setting.

The magic-realism label barely applies here, I think. The story feels very real and very sad. A young man is brought to breaking point much the way people of colonized countries are brought there. The pent-up reaction is often vicious and misdirected. Kurniawan also spoke of the accepted brutality that is inflicted upon women in the name of culture and tradition. Marital rape mimics the rape of country; when you watch your mother beaten, when you watch your country taken, when people are not given a choice, they will snap. And so they should.

**A couple of days ago Man Tiger lost to The Vegetarian for the Man Booker International Prize. Having read both books, I can easily say that Man Tiger is the superior novel.

[Sawsan · Rating 3 out of 5]

العنف هو بطل رواية الكاتب الاندونيسي إيكا كورنياوان.. خاصة العنف بأشكاله المختلفة ضد المرأة
الرواية تبدأ بجريمة قتل في قرية صغيرة والقاتل فيها معلوم.. يُصور الكاتب الحياة في القرية
ويحكي بالتفاصيل عن أسرتي القاتل والقتيل والروابط بينهم وصولا لدافع القتل
وخلال الحكي يعرض الأساطير المحلية والحكايات الشعبية والعادات السائدة
حكاية تقليدية تُدين العنف والإساءة والكراهية وآثارهم البائسة
وتظل رواية "الجمال جرح" هي الأجمل في الفكرة والسرد

[Nicole~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A person kills only from an impulse that springs from his blood and sinews, from the vestiges of ancient struggles.
― Émile Zola, The Beast Within(Les Rougon-Macquart)

Eka Kurniawan may have been inspired by Emile Zola's powerful novel of the nature of man: who would devolve to primitive instincts harkening back to animal behaviors, to the history of the male for dominance, and conquest of the female to reduce her to sexual subjugation. In The Beast Within(Les Rougon-Macquart), Zola posited that the human proclivity for vengeance and the unleashing of violent urges that end in a crime, are primarily borne through heredity. Atavistic bloodthirsty instincts -primitive in its beastly origins- lay dormant, but could resurface to avenge immoral and malevolent wrongs. In the case of the 'Man Tiger,' mental and physical brutality to women is on trial.

Set in an unknown Indonesian town, Man Tiger follows old folklore stories from Eka Kurniawan's youth, about tigers that live in villages and are guardians of their families. He weaves a very vivid tale of a small community socially structured by patriarchal dominance, depicting domestic violence at the heart of the matter which play out tragically and all too real.

This psychological thriller isn't that classic crime novel rife with the usual suspects since it begins with a bold line announcing the murder and the murderer from the start, and blends such violence with a typical day in the life of youth: "On the evening Margio killed Anwar Sadat, Kyai Jahro was blissfully busy with his fishpond." It evolves in the mesmerizing progressive style that Kurniawan masterfully showcased in Beauty is A Wound, of fluidly shifting time from the present backward, retracing the imprints of the crouching man-eater to its fatal pounce.

Featuring two families over two generations with its main character Margio unaware of, and possessed by, the sleeping beast within - a vengeful white tigress and supernatural creature inherited from his grandfather- Kurniawan unites the passion of coming-of-age, the desire to protect loved ones and the blinding rage of unplanned murder.

If a man couldn’t control his beast, it could turn so violent that nothing could restrain it once enraged.

Margio, a child of domestic rape, grows up embittered toward his father for his frequent absences, and hating the same for the brutal sexual and physical abuse of his mother. "Her husband’s treatment felt like slow death, but she didn’t know what to do. She never thought of leaving him... All she could do was keep to herself, and since sometimes Komar could be sweet and treat her well, hope didn’t die entirely." Margio's emotional restraint further unravels when he becomes romantically involved with the privileged daughter of the village's elite member, the controlling Anwar Sadat, a man with the secret that will ultimately tip Margio over the edge. In a well manipulated story arc, Margio's resentment toward Sadat parallels the rage for his father, inciting the 'tigress' to roar out of her dormancy.

Unlike the historical political map and complex magical realm of 'Beauty', Man Tiger is more contained in its plot structure, barely expressing Jakarta's history but realistically illuminating a hierarchical small town life still gripped in patriarchal hold. It is straightforward Asian noir, progressively paced in suspense, simple and exciting in its goth rendering and short enough to get through in a day.

Read June 2016

[Warwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This dreamy, meandering novel is written around a murder in a quiet Indonesian village, a crime whose victim and perpetrator are both given away in the opening sentence. Darting backwards and forwards in great swirls of flashbacks and foreshadowings, the story fills in the connections between the two characters and their families, gradually building up a kind of pointillist image of the town and the various tensions that led to the killing.

The young man at the centre of the book is possessed by the spirit of a white tigress, and this flash of ‘magic-realism’ (a label I've always found rather irritating) has led some reviewers and blurbers to make hasty comparisons with García Márquez or even Rushdie. Actually this has nowhere near the same level of complexity or linguistic dexterity (at least in translation); but anyway, the magic realism angle seems to be a bit of a red herring, since the main value here is not in the fantasy elements but rather in the naturalistic portrait of Indonesian village life, a life of boar hunts with wild dogs, snakes in the allamanda trees, prayers in the surau, cockfights in the ruins of an abandoned railway station, and the quiet desperation of families running on routine domestic violence.

What the novel illustrates, through its very sensitive portrayal of the two central families, is the way that violence within a family can scale up to violence within a community. For those with a little knowledge of Indonesian history, there may be an implicit invitation to scale up again, and make a connection with violence within the country as a whole. (Though politics is not mentioned directly, the region's history is present in various fossilised elements within the story, like the rusted samurai sword left over from the Japanese occupation that's being dragged around by the protagonist in the opening chapter.)

The English translation from Labodalih Sembiring is excellent and reads extremely naturally, despite the fact that the world it describes is often quite an alien one. But the underlying emotions are as familiar as ever, and Kurniawan has found some beautiful new ways to get at the same old bittersweet wisdom: ‘All that remained was a precious lesson that love causes pain, and the conviction that it couldn't be otherwise.’

[Ikra Amesta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suatu hari Margio membunuh Anwar Sadat tetangganya sampai lehernya nyaris putus. Tidak tanggung-tanggung, ia melakukannya dengan gigi sendiri dan saat ditanya, anak itu hanya mengaku telah dirasuki harimau buas.

Pembunuhnya ditangkap, korbannya dikubur, satu desa tercengang, dan cerita selesai sampai di situ. Tidak ada proses investigasi ala detektif atau penelusuran lebih lanjut pasca kejadian, insiden itu jadi titik awal sekaligus akhir dari kisah Lelaki Harimau. Namun ini cerita yang sangat kaya, setiap karakternya jadi gerbang jalur labirin yang belit-membelit sampai ke klimaks itu, sifat-sifat manusia diiris dan dibedah dengan pisau psikologis yang tajam, semua lanskap terlukis oleh warna-warni kata realis sekaligus magis.

Bukan novel spiritual apalagi mistis, harimau yang bersemayam dalam tubuh itu tidak banyak diceritakan, mungkin itu hanya alegori dari amarah atau mungkin memang siluman jadi-jadian, apapun itu tidak terlalu penting. Saya sadar ketika menutup buku ini bahwa cerita yang diangkat memang simpel. Hubungan sebab-akibat antar tokohnya tidak menawarkan sesuatu yang baru, motif-motifnya terlalu jelas dan biasa, apalagi setting ceritanya di perkampungan yang kompleksitasnya tidak begitu variatif. Tapi ketika saya membuka buku itu lagi, sembarang halaman, dan membacanya, dengan gampangnya sayapun hanyut ke dalam pesona prosa yang dirangkai Eka Kurniawan. Beliau begitu mahir menerjemahkan situasi dan emosi dengan peletakan diksi yang nyaris sempurna. Narasi-narasi yang panjang dan sangat minim dialog terasa sangat nyaman untuk terus dibaca, tidak melelahkan, dan gaya mendongengnya amat menghipnotis sehingga tokoh-tokohnya bisa langsung ‘terikat’ dengan saya dari kalimat pertama.

Ini adalah perkenalan pertama yang amat berkesan dengan Eka. Margio mengigit leher Anwar Sadat sampai mau putus, itu saja yang bisa saya sampaikan, selebihnya memang hanya Eka yang pantas menceritakan semuanya. Bayangkan saja kalau Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie, William Faulkner, dan Virginia Woolf berembuk membuat satu novel berlatar Indonesia. Yah, sulit juga membayangkannya tapi percayalah, itu terjadi.

Setelahnya saya jadi ingin menggigit leher Eka sampai hampir putus. Rasa iri saya atas bakatnya sepadan dengan amarah Margio yang naik sampai ubun-ubun!

[Sidharth Vardhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even if you leave alone magical realism, there is a hint of Marquez in this author's prose. If that doesn't sell the book, I don't know what will. Just look at this:

"After two days in the hospital, Komar asked to be taken home and said firmly to Mameh, “Don’t call for any more doctors. I’m healthy enough to wait for my grave to be dug.”

"The city government was said to have given him a plot of land in the heroes’ cemetery as a reward for his service, something he described as an invitation to die quickly. "

The references to classics and mythological tales celebrate storytelling traditions. In fact, the story itself is a retelling of an ancient myth.

The story itself, told in a non-linear manner and from a shifting point of view, though is very simple - that of two dysfunctional families. The tiger seemed to me no more than symbol of repressed anger of a kid over domestic violence (child becomes tiger the way Bruce becomes hulk) and mistreatment of his mother and about how hard and violent instincts of a community which has found peace after long period of violent disturbances and wars; find new ways to show up (animal hunting games, fighting games for youth, domestic violence). The post-war atmosphere shows up as a theme in many other ways (the retired major, rusted samurai swords, the army needing local criminals to have their fun with etc. )

Another motif is people believing that things are coming out of them used to show people showing shock at themselves/ their own behavior (the way hulk refused to be identified with the other guy). While the tigress coming out of a man is an obvious example, the other example would be that of his sister:

Every morning her chest size seemed to have expanded overnight, a thought that sometimes made her wonder if a separate woman wasn’t starting to emerge from the teenage girl. "

Other beautiful lines :

" It was almost dark when the sandy red soil finally covered him. The gravedigger slowly stepped on this soil, but didn’t make it too compact, as a mandatory precaution lest the dead should be resurrected. "

"He also had a feeling that the baby was a girl because, as people said, that’s how it is when a woman suddenly becomes exceptionally beautiful during pregnancy. "

[Missy J · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most moving novel that I read in 2016. I haven't written a review for this because I'm still literally speechless. Is it inevitable that oppressed people often oppress those that are weaker than them (women, children, disabled, elderly, animals...)?

This short novel is divided into five parts. In Part One we hear that a murder happened in a small unnamed Javanese village. Margio, a young man killed his neighbor, the middle-aged Anwar Sadat, but nobody knows why. In Part Two, we learn about "the tiger." The villagers believe that some people inherit a tiger spirit from the ancestors and that the tiger will guide its owner as a wife and protector. Part Three looks into the past of some characters, while Part Four leads to the climatic event. Finally in Part Five, all the pieces fall into place and we learn why the murder happened.

I loved the imagery of this book. The old man at the fish pond. The motorbike wobbling through the rice fields. The serabi pancake sellers in the morning. The kite flyers and dove gamblers in the fields. And the young men and their dogs returning to the village after hunting pigs. The author's narrative voice flowed very smooth like water.

Kurniawan depicts how superstition is part of the villagers' life and that it is often the only way for them to explain the unexplainable. Or maybe they can guess and already know what really happened, but telling the legend of the tiger is a kinder and less offensive way to explain things.

But more interesting than the tiger, I thought was this book's presentation of gender relations. Village girls are married off at a young age because their parents want it and because everybody else in the village is doing it. The girls are too young to understand what they are getting themselves into. Some will come across the horrors of domestic violence. How entitled man can feel towards woman. How woman quietly accepts her "fate," yet still harbors a deep, vengeful resentment against man which could explode, who knows? Is it any wonder that one of the few Malay/Indonesian word that crossed over into the English language is "amok"? Kurniawan presents the ugly and it is very uncomfortable. In a society where people are too polite and indirect to talk about the ugly, I'm glad Kurniawan penned this novel.


Painting by Raden Saleh.

[✨ jami ✨]

I've been to the tutorial for this book and now I'm an intellectual. time to write a proper review

“If a man couldn’t control his beast, it could turn so violent that nothing could restrain it once enraged.”

I read this for my English major world literatures unit, and it's the first piece of Indonesian literature I've ever read. I was incredibly excited to read it, because it was a first and also because I've heard good things about this book out and about. It's was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2015.

I find literary books hard to rate often times, because there's a weird dichotomy between value and enjoyment. I didn't fly through this book, I didn't find it entertaining like I would find the usual books I read but I'm not sure if that's an excuse me to take away it's value or rate it low. It's a well written book and cultural examination.

Man Tiger is set in coastal Indonesia, following a boy called Margio who's got a white tiger inside of him. On the first page we found out he - or his inner white tiger - killed a man, and on the last page we find out why. We know he's done it, and the book follows the series of events and people that led him to that moment. It is an ownvoices book that heavily incorporates Indonesian - specifically Javan, culture, beliefs and a mixture of Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist religious beliefs.

A note and warning - there is graphic and explicit rape, domestic violence, infant death due to violence, parental violence toward a child and also general graphic violence. I found a lot of this book really hard to stomach and found lots of it very uncomfortable. Violence is a core theme, symbolised through the white tiger and while the violence often comes as an exploration of toxic masculinity and Indonesia's often violent past, as well as Indonesian cultural expectations, it was still really hard to read

I genuinely disliked the representation of women in Man Tiger. The preface of this book argues that Man Tiger contains Kurniawan's most detailed female characters, so I really don't like to think what is in his other books. The women were objects to be exploited, tropey and objectified and I really didn't think they were well written.

The timeline is non-linear, and jumps around quite a bit which can be confusing, but which also lends to some great scenes and allows the story to unfold in a really unique way. I loved to get a glimpse of Javan life and Indonesian literatures through Man Tiger - the way that the religions coexisted and manifested in the society was fascinating and I also liked Kurniawan's attempt to depict the "true" Java and not "post card" Java. The postcard Indonesia is very prominent in Australia and it was nice to see an Indonesian writer tackling this perception of Indonesia.

Man Tiger is one of those books I'd recommend, and I think has good literary value and it very well written but I wouldn't reread. However, I've heard he's just released an Indonesian retelling of Animal Farm which I think I might check out!

[Banu Yıldıran Genç · Rating 3 out of 5]

galiba eka beye verdiğim son şans bu olacak. “güzellik bir yaradır”da epey havada kalmış şey vardı, aceleyle çok şey anlatıyor gibiydi ama endonezya tarihinin anlatımı ve elbette kölelik, sömürge, yönetenlerin habire değişmesi filan romanı çok ilginç kılıyordu. bence kaplan adam yanına yaklaşamamış o açıdan. ha yazar başka bir yol denemiş ama öbürünü tercih ederim.
“kaplan adam”da daha başta işlenen ve uzun uzun betimlenen cinayet, mistik inançlarla desteklenirler birden geriye dönüşle cinayete adım adım giden yolu anlatıyor.
müslüman bir üçüncü dünya ülkesinde mutsuz bir evlilik. bu evliliğin getirdiği şiddet ve araya giren bir yasak aşk diyebiliriz belki kısaca.
içinde dişi bir kaplan yaşayan (endonezya inanışına göre) ve cinayeti işleyen margio’nun arada kalmışlığı, babasına nefreti çok iyi işlenmiş ama açıkçası ben cinayete ikna olmadım.
içinde büyüttüğü öfkeyi sevdiği kızın babasına yansıtma biçimi o toplumda yetişmiş biri için fazla dramatik geldi. şimdi spoiler vermeyeyim ama allah aşkına kim aşk arıyor zaten fakrüzaruret içinde…
son cümlede yazar romantik (hem akım hem duygu) bir bitiş yaratmak istemiş sanırım. ben bunun namus cinayeti olduğuna eminim ama ispat edemem. margio da yaşadığı toplumun koşullarına göre biçimlenmiş, öfke dolu bir genç. ve annesinin tarafını tuttuğunu düşünse bile öyle olup olmadığını pek bilemiyoruz.
romanda en iyi işlenen karakter bence nuraeni’ydi. sevmediği bir adamla 12 yaşında nişanlanan, 16’sında evlenen, gün yüzü görmeyen, dayakla tecavüzle 2 çocuk doğuran (ne kadar tanıdık) bu kadının gerçek sevişmeyi hazzı keşfetmesi çok güzel anlatılmış. sonrası yine trajedi tabii.
ama tüm bunlara rağmen beni çok etkileyen bir roman olmadı “kaplan adam”. mitolojik bağını da zayıf buldum. benedict anderson da ne beğenmiş anacım :)) önsöze bakarsak sanki yeni bir salman rüştü doğuyor. işte bunlar hep oryantalizm. istediğiniz kadar uzak olduğunuzu düşünün. coğrafya üsttekiler için de alttakiler için de kaderdir.
çeviri, dipnotlar filan harika ama onu not düşeyim. çevirmen seda çıngay mellor’un da, editör algan sezgintüredi’nin de ellerine sağlık.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounded up. The short version follows; if you want the chatty cathy version, you can always click here.

Man Tiger is just flat-out amazing, which is probably one reason it's been listed for the Man Booker International Prize for 2016. I was not at all disappointed -- au contraire -- I became the embodiment of the cliché about being glued to the story. Not only does this story move back and forth through time to get to the core of this tale, it also incorporates local folklore and mythology to help in doing so. It's a novel a person can read not just as the story of a crime, but also as a story about Indonesia as viewed through a number of different perspectives. The book is also an incredible example of storytelling -- I am not exaggerating when I say that this is a novel that I could not put down.

Intriguingly, Man Tiger begins with a vicious crime, about which the news spreads quickly throughout the small Indonesian coastal town where this book is set. It comes as a shock that Margio (20), has killed Anwar Sadat (the older victim). Margio was well known to everyone in this small Indonesian coastal town, and no one had pegged him as a particularly violent person. In fact, the only bad thing anyone could come up with about him was that he had been known to steal chickens. Even these, though, belonged to his father, and it was widely known that the theft was done "out of spite." But Margio had indeed murdered Sadat in a most vicious and brutal manner, by biting through his jugular. While it's true that "People attacked with their teeth, particularly when women fought each other," death by biting just didn't happen. Machetes, swords, yes -- but not teeth. The crime itself was not premeditated; Margio says that

"The idea came to him all of a sudden, as a burst of light in his brain."

and that

"He spoke of hosting something inside his body, something other guts and entrails. It poured out and steered him, encouraging him to kill."

In his cell, Margio makes a statement "calmly and without guilt" that it wasn't really him who had killed Anwar Sadat, but it was "a tiger inside my body."

The rest of the novel goes back into time to explore exactly why Margio did what he did. At least, that's the easy explanation of this story, which also explores people tied together (and in some cases, trapped) by tragedy and by the past.

This book is part crime story, part exploration of a country still haunted and angered by its past, and when all is said and done, it's an intense read. Highly, highly recommended.

[mollusskka · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,8 Stars

Kenapa baru kali ini ya baca bukunya Eka Kurniawan? Padahal beberapa karyanya ada beberapa yang udah dimiliki? Jawabannya... mungkin karena grogi mau baca karya yang banyak orang bilang bagus. Seakan perlu waktu untuk mempersiapkan diri. Kalau buku ini nggak ada yang mau beli cepat, mungkin masih belum dibaca juga. Dan ternyata setelah dibaca, ceritanya memang bagus banget. Meski padat narasi, asyik aja bacanya dan nggak ada rasa bosan. Sempat mual juga waktu baca bagian yang mengerikan itu. Tapi untunglah nggak terus-terusan dibahas. Aku juga merasa beruntung dapatnya kover yang ini. Karena ternyata ada edisi kover yang benar-benar menyeramkan!

Yang kurang buatku cuma masalah setting. Itu di Indonesia bagian mana ya tepatnya? Kadang rasanya kayak di pelosoooook banget, tapi waktu bapaknya Margio masih muda malah rasanya jauh lebih modern ketimbang masa kanak-kanak dan dewasa Margio. Aku juga sebenarnya berharap kisah harimau itu lebih dieksplor lagi biar semakin memuaskan rasa ingin tahu. Lain-lainnya udah pas.

Aku suka banget dengan cara Eka memperkenalkan karakternya berikut kisah hidupnya: lapis demi lapis dikupas hingga akhirnya mengerti sebab dan akibatnya. Dan dari sana aku mulai berangan-angan seandainya si akar masalah itu nggak terjadi mungkin nggak akan ada tragedi keluarga macam itu. Entah siapa yang lebih malang nasibnya.

[Kin · Rating 5 out of 5]

โอ้โห สุดดีจริงๆ ยอมรับว่าเราอ่านเล่มนี้ด้วยท่าทีสงสัยว่า 'อะไรจะขนาดนั้น' เพราะได้ยินคำชื่นชม คำโปรย คำเชียร์ จากคนมากมายว่างานนี้ดีในระดับปราโมทยาหรืออาจจะมากกว่า ซึ่งตัวเราเองไม่อินกับงานของปราโมทยาเท่าไหร่

แต่พออ่านจริงๆ เราพบว่ามันเป็นนิยายที่ค่อนข้างละเอียดลออมาก พล็อตเรื่องหลักๆ ไม่ได้ซับซ้อน แต่เล่นกับสัญญะ อารมณ์ และวิธีการเล่าเรื่องได้โดดเด่นมากๆ ชอบการแบ่งบทและชอบตอนท้ายของทุกบท ซึ่งขมวดประเด็นและโยนไปสู่ส่วนต่อไปได้ดีมาก

ไม่อยากสปอยเลย แต่เราชอบจริงๆ ไม่ได้อ่านนิยายสองร้อยหน้าจบภายในวันสองวันมานานมากๆ แล้ว ติดท็อปลิสต์หนังสือยอดเยี่ยมในปีนี้ของเราแน่ กราบคนแปลงามๆ ด้วยหนึ่งที

ปล. เราว่าประเด็นเมจิคัล เรียลลิสม์นี่เป็นอะไรที่ทำให้หนังสือหมดสนุกไปโดยปริยายจริงๆ ตอนอ่านเราไม่ได้คิดถึงมันในแง่นั้น เลยรู้สึกสนุกมากๆ และไม่ได้คิดว่าเสือสมิงมันสัจนิยมมหัศจรรย์อะไร แต่พอนึกถึงท่าทีของฝรั่งเวลาอ่าน เขาคงมีความรู้สึกแบบนั้นกันจริงๆ ลองฟังเพื่อนที่อ่านด้วยคำนึงว่ามันเป็นเมจิคัล เรียลลิสม์แล้ว ปรากฏว่าผลเป็นสองทางชัดเจน คือฝั่งที่ชอบก็เพราะว่าชอบเมจิคัล และเล่มนี้ดูเขียนเรื่องตามโครงเรื่องนิยายละตินอเมริกัน ส่วนฝั่งที่ไม่ชอบก็เพราะคิดว่ามันไม่ได้เมจิคัลขนาดนั้น และมันเขียนตามโครงเรื่องนิยายละตินอเมริกันนี่แหละ

[raafi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inilah mengapa aku terus membaca sastra Indonesia: indah. Penulis-penulis pribumi dihadapkan pada masa-masa ketika kaki harus terikat agar tetap berdiri. Tapi dengan ikatan erat kaki, tangan mereka tetap bebas. Bebas menuangkan tinta pada kertas. Bebas menuangkan pikiran dan pendapat melalui cerita. Dengan tulisan, mereka membangun bangsa sekaligus mempercantik keberagaman sastra Indonesia. Aku pikir Eka Kurniawan salah satu yang mengalaminya.

Selengkapnya: http://bibliough.blogspot.com/2015/08...

[Tien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can no longer say that I speak Bahasa Indonesia fluently. I have an Aussie accent now though really, my Indonesian isn’t that bad! In any case, there are always certain things which do not ever translate well and it’s to my advantage that I can mix the two languages. I have, however, a keen interest in translated works especially from Bahasa Indonesia. This was the only basis I had as interest in Man Tiger and boy, I was blown away.

Man Tiger drew me in right from the very beginning and kept me in its grip all the way to the end. The mystery isn’t a whodunit but rather ‘whydunit’. I thought this was a rather a fresh proposal but since I already know who, it might rather be difficult to keep me interested but I was kept spellbound through to the end of the book. The story of the town and of Margio and his family fascinated me with their brokenness, their zest for life, and most of all, their passions.

There were a few things, translation-wise, which threw me off. I think sometimes, you just cannot translate certain things especially when it is a native food with no western world equivalent. It just didn’t sound right. I was also surprised at the sexual content and thought that I probably would not like it if I was reading the book in its original language. For some reason, sexual scenes just sound rather vulgar in Indonesian. A week later, I read an interview of the author, Eka Kurniawan, who stated this exact same thought! Nevertheless, I’m looking to source this when I go overseas next month.

Overall, I found the novel to be reminiscent of Haruki Murakami's. The magical realism aspect of the novel was slightly similar to Murakami’s works though the strange factor is not quite at the same level. The ending, I feel, could be Murakami too… It was so abrupt though I really could not imagine what else there is to be so really it was abrupt but perfect.

Man Tiger is a very passionate tale –Passion which drives us to live, to feel, to need, and even drive us crazy. I’m a huge fan of Murakami and I believe, Eka Kurniawan belongs on the same spot in my heart. If you’re a fan of Murakami, I don’t think you’d be disappointed with Man Tiger.

Thanks Verso Books (US) via NetGalley for eARC in exchange of honest review

[Hulyacln · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Her birimizin içinde bir kaplan yaşıyor’ hissine kapılıyor musunuz siz de? Onu beslediğinizde, usulca okşadığınızda varlığı güven veriyor, hoşnut kılmadığınızda da ansızın hırçınlaşıp dişlerini gösteriyor gibi geliyor mu? Cevabınız hayır ise Kaplan Adam’ı okumak fikrinizi değiştirebilir.
Çünkü sakin bir genç olan Margio, Enver Sedat’ı öldürüyor. Bunu baştan biliyoruz, hatta nasıl öldürdüğünü de.
Neden öldürdüğü ise henüz muamma.
Margio’ya, onun içindeki kaplana kulak vermemiz gerekiyor: biraz daha yaklaşın!
.
Yaklaşık beş sene önce yazarın Güzellik Bir Yaradır adlı eserini okuduğumda; hazmetmesi zor demiştim. Kaplan Adam da altta kalmıyor anlattıklarıyla! Şiddet yoğunluğu belki daha az ama beslendiği konular öyle çeşitli ki!
Halk efsaneleri, travmalar, aile içi şiddet, cinsiyet eşitsizliği..
.
Kaplan Adam’ın sevdiğim diğer özellikleri neler peki? :
-zaman atlamaları ile sağlanan dinamik kurgu,
-kadın karakterlerin (bilhassa Nuraeni karakteri) iç dünyalarının aktarılmasındaki ustalık,
-sonu belli bir hikayede dahi okuyucuyu merakta bırakabilme.
.
Çok sevdim!
.
Seda Çıngay Mellor çevirisi, Alex Merto kapak tasarımıyla ~

[Andrew]

Man Tiger confirms what Beauty Is a Wound made me suspect -- that Eka Kurniawan is one of the brightest lights of world literature today, and Man Tiger was just as daring, cruel, and mesmerically beautiful. He captures the rhythms of a Southeast Asian (awfully vague term, I know, but I think it applies here) village awfully well, with the lyrical beauty of the landscape juxtaposed against the violence, inequality, irrationality, webs of obligations, and stupidity that mark life under the neocolonial order, where the superstition and hierarchy of the old times have yet to go away, and capitalism has failed to deliver on what it has promised. And it is in this middle place that some of the most interesting stories emerge, including this one about a man with a tiger inside him. Is it metaphorical or real? That doesn't matter, truly -- it's set in a world in which that line doesn't exist.

[Pawarut Jongsirirag · Rating 4 out of 5]

สัจนิยมมหัศจรรย์ ไม่ได้มีเเค่ลาติน อเมริกา อินโดนีเซียก็มีเเละเจ๋งไม่เเพ้กัน

สมิงสำเเดง เปิดเรื่องด้วยการเกิดเหตุฆาตกรรมรายหนึ่ง ศพถูดกัดคอเป็นเเผลเหวอะหวะ คนร้ายถูกจับได้ในทันทีทันใด เขาคือชายหนุ่มที่เป็นที่รู้จักดีในย่านนั้นนาม มาร์ฆีโอ เมื่อเริ่มสอบสวนเขาสารภาพว่าเขาเป็นคนทำ เเต่เขาก็ไม่ได้ทำ สิ่งทีทำคือเสือในร่างของเขาต่างหาก

เป็นนิยายสัจนิยมเคล้าวัฒนธรรมมุสลิม ที่เปิดเรื่องด้วยการฆาตกรรม เเละดำเนินไปในลักษณะของ Whydontit ทำไมชายหนุ่มคนนี้ถึงลงมือฆ่าทั้งๆที่ทั้งสองไม่เคยมีเรื่องราวโกรธเคืองกันมาก่อนเลย ในระหว่างการเดินเรื่องนั้น เอกาได้ใส่ส่วนผสมของความมหัศจรรย์ลงไปในเนื้อเรื่องได้เเบบเนียนกริบมาก เป็นการใส่เพื่อเสริมให้เนื้อเรื่องให้มีรสชาติมากขึ้น มากกว่าการนำความมหัศจรรย์มาเป็นตัวชูโรง

เมื่อนึกถึงสัจนิยมมหัศจรรย์ มักนึกถึงเรื่องขั้นครูอย่าง 100 ปีเเห่งความโดดเดี่ยว ของมาร์เกซ สมิงสำเเดงดำเนินเรื่องผ่านบุคคลที่สามคล้ายกับ 100 ปีมาก เเละเล่าชะตาชีวิตของตัวละครเเต่ละตัวได้ละเอียด เเสดงให้เห็นถึงความคับเเค้น ความโศกเศร้าได้อย่างชัดเจน เเละส่วนตัวเห็นว่าเอกาใส่ความมหัศจรรย์ในเรื่องนี่ได้ค่อนข้างเนียนไปกับเรื่องมากกว่า 100 ปีอยู่ในที

สิ่งที่เสียดายในนิยายเล่มนี้คือมันวางโครงเรื่องเล็กไปหน่อย เป็นเพียงเรื่องราวของครอบครัวชีวิตรันทดๆในเมืองเล็กๆเมืองหนึ่ง ทำให้ใส่รายละเอียดได้ค่อนข้างน้อย ถ้าเพิ่มสเกลของเนื้อเรื่องให้ใหญ่มากกว่านี้ เอกาน่าจะปล่อยพลังใส่ผู้อ่านได้มากกว่านี้ได้อย่างเเน่นอน

สำหรับใครที่สนใจอยากลองอ่านนิยายสัจนิยมมหัศจรรย์เล่มนี้ถือเป็นเล่มเเนะนำให้ทำความรู้จักกับนิยายประเภทนี้ได้อย่างดี เนื่องจากมันไม่หนามาก เดิน���รื่องกระชับเเละอาศัยความเป็น Mystery ทำให้คนที่อาจเบื่อกับการเดินเรื่องเเบบเนิบๆสามารภอ่านได้อย่างสนุก ส่วนใครที่ชอบอยู่เเล้ว เล่มนี้เหมือนมาเปลี่ยนรสชาติจากสไตล์ลาติน มาเป็นเอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้ที่คุ้นเคยของเราเอง

[Δx Δp ≥ ½ ħ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pengharapan memang bisa membunuh.

Satu dari sekian buku yang membuat kecewa di tahun 2016

[George K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Βαθμολογία: 9/10

Πέρυσι τον Ιούλιο αγόρασα σε σχετικά αστεία τιμή το πιο γνωστό μυθιστόρημα του Έκα Κουρνιαουάν, το αρκετά ογκώδες "Η ομορφιά είναι πληγή", όμως η πρώτη μου επαφή με το έργο του έμελλε να είναι το σχετικά μικρό "Άνδρας τίγρη", που αγόρασα φέτος τον Ιούλιο! Ε, είπα να μην μπω κατευθείαν στα βαθιά και πνιγώ. Λοιπόν, πρόκειται για ένα πραγματικά πολύ έντονο, σκοτεινό και εξαιρετικά καλογραμμένο μυθιστόρημα, που μπορεί να είναι μικρό στο μάτι αλλά μεγάλο... όχι, εντάξει, δεν ταιριάζει εδώ η φράση, αλλά καταλάβατε: Μέσα σε σκάρτες εκατόν πενήντα σελίδες ο Κουρνιαουάν χώρεσε τόσες εικόνες και τόσα συναισθήματα, που άλλοι θα χρειάζονταν τον διπλάσιο ή και τον τριπλάσιο χώρο για να τα καταφέρουν. Ένιωσα ότι διάβασα ένα μεγάλο σε μέγεθος μυθιστόρημα και όχι μια (μεγαλούτσικη) νουβέλα: Και με αυτό δεν εννοώ φυσικά ότι είχε τον ατελείωτο και ότι σερνόταν, όχι βέβαια, αλλά ότι ουσιαστικά ο Κουρνιαουάν περιέγραψε μια ολόκληρη κοινωνία, έναν ολόκληρο μικρόκοσμο, συνδυάζοντας εξαιρετικά τον λυρισμό με τον ωμό ρεαλισμό, χωρίς φιοριτούρες και περιττολογίες. Και ο τρόπος αφήγησης είναι ιδιαίτερα ευρηματικός, με τα μπρος-πίσω στον χρόνο και τη μεταπήδηση από χαρακτήρα σε χαρακτήρα, μέχρι να καταλήξουμε στο τέλος της ιστορίας, το οποίο μπορεί να γνωρίζουμε από τις πρώτες κιόλας σελίδες, αλλά σίγουρα δεν γνωρίζουμε γιατί και πώς έφτασαν τα πράγματα εκεί που έφτασαν. Για μένα, σίγουρα από τις δυνατές στιγμές της φετινής αναγνωστικής χρονιάς!

[Teresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

«Eka Kurniawan poderá ser um próximo Prémio Nobel.»
— Le Monde

Como diz uma amiga minha: "Desde que vi um porco a andar de bicicleta, já acredito em tudo."

O livro inicia-se com um crime. Um homem é morto à dentada, no pescoço, que quase lhe separa a cabeça do tronco. A narrativa prossegue contando a história do assassino, e da sua família, e as motivações que o levaram a perder a cabeça de forma tão violenta.
As páginas de descrição do crime provocaram-me incredulidade e uma ligeira repugnância; as da violência doméstica foram-me indiferentes (e não devia ser assim); as muitas a relatarem cenas de sexo desagradaram-me, pelo abuso sobre as mulheres e pela forma ridícula e demasiado extensa como são descritas; as restantes aborreceram-me.
Não gostei do modo saltitante como são narrados os acontecimentos; não gostei da escrita (por exemplo ele batia-lhe "a torto e a direito" e "despejar beijos repletos de luxúria" não me parecem frases muito literárias); não achei qualquer sentido - ou não percebi, ou está mal contado - ao tigre branco que vivia dentro de um homem e que passava para os descendentes.

Enfim... tempo e dinheiro desperdiçados. Que pensei não o serem porque Eka Kurniawan, além de ser um dos nomeados para o Man Booker Internacional Prize de 2016, é comparado a Gabriel García Márquez.

[Marina · Rating 3 out of 5]

** Books 161 - 2016 **

3,4 dari 5 bintang!

Satu kampung geger dengan dibunuhnya Anwar Sadat oleh Margo, pemuda baik dan berakal budi namun hidup dalam garis kemiskinan bersama Ayahnya yang tak kunjung pulang, Komar. Adiknya, Mameh dan Marian dan Ibunya yang setengah gila, Nuraeni.

Sekali lagi saya katakan Eka Kurniawan memang piawai dalam menulis cerita meski sedikit halamannya tetapi disajikan dengan berbobot! Saya penasaran sudah lama buku ini teronggok rapi di timbunan buku dan ditambah masuk kedalam long-list Man Booker Prize 2016 berakhir saya selesai baca juga! >__<

Saya cukup menyukai buku di cerita ini tema kekerasan rumah tangga, kemiskinan dan juga sedikit sentuhan fantasi membuat buku ini menarik untuk diikuti tetapi tetap sii juaranya saya lebih menikmati Cantik Itu Luka yang menurut saya ceritanya lebih kompleks dan saya suka akan unsur sejarahnya :3

[Skip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, but I think some of the Indonesian author's words and ideas did not translate well into English. This is the story of a surprisingly violent murder in a small village, where a 20-year old boy-man tears open the throat of an older villager in the opening chapter. The rest of the book is spent providing the backstory of what motivated young Margio (the man tiger) to act as he did. I thought the book was well paced, but found the inconsistent timeline a bit hard to follow.

[merixien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eka Kurniawan’dan Güzellik Bir Yaradır kitabını okumuş ve çok sevmiştim. Açıkcası o sevgi, Kaplan Adam’a biraz tereddütle yaklaşmama sebep oldu. Kendisini tekrar etmesinden ya da beklentimin altında kalmasından korkuyordum. Ama Kurniawan beni bir kez daha şaşırttı.

Güzellik Bir Yaradır’dan çok farklı bir kurulumu olsa da aslında Endonezya’da kadın olmak bu kitabın da temelini oluşturuyor. Bir yandan da toplumun aile özelinde, kişilere yüklediği anlamları-sorumlulukları da irdeliyor. Aslında çok kısa bir roman ama yazarın olaydan daha çok duygularla ve devamlı geçmiş ile günümüz arasında dolaşırken bıraktığı ipuçları ile çok daha karmaşık bir romana dönüşüyor.

Temelde kötü bir evliliğin sonucu olarak dünyaya gelmiş Margio’nun komşusu Enver Sedat’ın boynunu ısırarak öldürdüğü haberi ile açılıyor roman. Hissettiği yetersizliği şiddet ve öfke patlamalarıyla ailesinden çıkaran bir babanın oğlu olmasına rağmen şiddete hiçbir zaman meyillenmemiş olmasından dolayı köyde büyük bir şoka sebep olur bu haber. Bu cinayetin sebebini çözmeye çalışırken bütün kahramanların duygu durumlarının detaylarına kavuşuyoruz. Yoksul bir geçmiş, hayata dair yaşanan hayal kırıklıkları, mecburi evlilikler, erkeklik kavramına yüklenen gereksiz yücelik ve kadınlığın siyah ve beyaz olarak ayrılıp yine erkekler tarafından tanımlanması gibi.

Kaplan Adam 170 sayfada, çok karmaşık bir olaylar zincirini, bütün köyü ve karakterleri gözünüzde canlandırabileceğiniz şekilde, Endonezya’nın mitleri ile müslüman kültürünü birleştirip melez bir mit tadında anlatıyor. Çok beğendim ama yine de Güzellik Bir Yaradır hala en sevdiğim.

[Widyanto Gunadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

For review in Indonesian, see Lelaki Harimau.

Passionately forthright, sparse in dialogues, and yet repletes with an impressive treasury of dictions, Man Tiger is a carefully constructed, fast-paced, suspense-fueled crime fiction. Straying away from the known traditional format, Eka Kurniawan’s second offering is taking a rather unorthodox approach by giving away to the readers the cat and the mouse of the tale by its very first opening sentence. Henceforth, by doing so, Eka resourcefully pins down the chronicle into the only possible pathway available to move the story forward: backward.

Given the archetypical problem of finding your mysterious villain has been solved, that leaves us with the motifs behind the mastermind’s; Margio’s crooked murder of Anwar Sadat. And Eka decisively explores this prevailing theme well. Through blending his signature brand of satirical prose and vulgar, boldly honest storytelling, with local myths and fantastical beliefs, his narrative flows like a beautiful, chaotic magical time-space.

It pulls you in, right from the get-go, into a make-believe world set in a village full of wonders, yields to be experienced wholly without any prejudice or narrow-mindedness. In this imagined, visionary dystopian wonderland of his, Eka wants to extensively examine and criticize the often socially conformed and publicly adhered black-and-white morality discourse, applied in normal daily society. Just as Margio, who killed Anwar Sadat, motivated to do so not by his own will, but by the female tiger’s residing inside him.

Likewise, Anwar Sadat’s constant display of loving attitude towards his three daughters, while also still capable of acting naughty with other women besides his wife behind their backs. We cannot judge people and put them into one of the two categories: either they are perfectly goody-two-shoes, or stone-cold evil and despicable. The reason for this is crystal clear.

Reality does not operate in such easygoing, gapping duality. We are all equally guilty of our own secretly hidden, and sometimes unadmitted, mischievous little deeds. Fit to be tied, we are all morally gray. Nobody is sinless and purely holy. Literature has told us this truth many times. So did Man Tiger, once again.

[Simay Yildiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kaplan Adam öncesinde, geçtiğimiz yıl tanıştım Eka Kurniawan ile. Sevgili Gülşen’in önerisi üzerine Güzellik Bir Yaradır isimli kitabını okudum, okurken bazı yerlerde durup nefes almam, bazı yerlerde ara verip “ooohaaaaaaa” demem gerekti. En sevdiğim yanı ise gerçek bir “büyülü gerçekçilik” şaheseri olmasıydı. Marquez aşkım büyük ama bu işi onun gibi yapabilen yok pek – milletin “büyülü gerçekçilik” diye işaretlediği pek çok şey değil zaten. Az sayıda “bu beceriyor valla” dediğim yazarlara Kurniawan’ı da ekledim; öyle söyleyeyim. Kaplan Adam gerçekten büyülü gerçekçiliğin dibi!

Şunu da söylemem lazım: daha ilk cümleden bana hemen Marquez’in Kırmızı Pazartesi kitabını hatırlattı:

Devamı: https://zimlicious.com/kaplan-adam-en...

[Luthfi Ferizqi]

I’m putting this on hold for now. After the first chapter, the story feels too boring, with an overly narrative writing style and not enough character conflict.

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

This for me was the 12th of the 13 book longlist for the Man Booker International prize, many read in quick succession, and I think I'm suffering from MBI fatigue.

The longlist contains some genuinely exceptional books (Story of the Lost Child, Mend the Living, Death by Water, The Vegetarian), and some that are valiant failures (Cup of Rage, Four Books), but there does seem to be a generic MBI book: White Hunger, A General Theory of Oblivion, Tram 83, A Whole Life and now Man Tiger.

Not too long (150-200 pages), quite a simple story, not particularly literary in its own right, the effect instead, for the English reader, being more the local colour of the prose style and setting. Books that had they be written by an English writer, would at best be Costa not Booker or Goldsmiths contenders.

Now to be fair they aren't all identikit - A General Theory of Oblivion has a strong plot, albeit heavily contrived, and Tram 83, as befits a novel written by a poet, has wonderful prose but hardly a story at all. But I suspect in six months time I'll struggle to remember much about any of them.

Man Tiger was also eligible for the Best Translated Book Award, but the judges instead chose Beauty is a Wound, a previous novel by the same author but also published in 2015 in English. A plausible case is made in the introduction to the English edition of Man Tiger that it marks a maturity of Kurniwan's literary style vs. the earlier novel, but one could equally argue Man Tiger is more conventional and less ambitious. Perhaps it's no real surprise that the two different juries opted for different books given their respective tastes.

Of the novel itself, I've relatively little to say. A whyhedidit rather than a whodunnit, as the murderer is revealed in the opening line, but when the why comes it is a rather anti-climatic. And the central conceit of the book, the Tiger inside of the main character Mario, is introduced well but doesn't really develop.

Disappointing although I suspect that has to do with the context in which I read i

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. What an ending. I was almost dead set on 4 stars, because the timeline kind of seemed all over the place and it was hard to follow sometimes, especially the last chapter. But I was intrigued with this book the whole time and had no idea where it would lead me. And it lead me to that ending. This is a crazy story. It's sad. Lots of abuse, rape, and horrible treatment of women in the village, but I couldn't stop. I'm so glad I read this book, and very cool to read a book by an Indonesian author. I loved his introduction, which talked about his hardships. Now, I want to learn more about the history of Indonesia, because I have been fascinated with this country. I've only been there once to a little place no one has heard of (well, maybe now they have). I don't remember the name. My dad worked there and the island was only for machine companies. No one really lived there. We lived in Singapore and he took a boat over for work. Anyways. This book may trigger you. It may frustrate you. But I think it was worth the read.

[Nidhi Mahajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Edit] This book review was originally written for Scroll.in and has been published on their website here.

Lyrical, bawdy, experimental, political: There aren’t enough adjectives for this novel.

Eka Kurniawan’s Man Tiger (2015) is almost a literary child of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) and Gabriel García Márquez’ Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981). However, this does not mean that it lacks originality. Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016, Man Tiger is as much a crime novel as a social critique.

Like Kurniawan’s first novel Beauty is a Wound (2002), Man Tiger is set in an unnamed Indonesian township near the Indian Ocean. The central protagonist of the novel is Margio, a young man possessed by a white tigress. The tigress, “white as a swan and vicious as an ajak”, is an inheritance that Margio receives from his grandfather. The first line of the novel introduces the central event of the narrative. It reads: “On the evening Margio killed Anwar Sadat, Kyai Jahro was blissfully busy with his fishpond.” In five neat chapters, the novel takes its readers on a quest, reliving the events that lead to the crime and introducing the characters that are variedly involved in it.

Time has stopped
One of the most compelling things about the novel is its engagement with time. The first chapter opens in the present day; the subsequent chapters take the reader back to Margio’s childhood and further back to his parents’ days of courtship; and the final chapter returns, once more, to the present. However, it is rarely as simple as that. Time in the novel expands and contracts, past flows into the present and the present often harks back upon the past. At one point, the novel announces, “Time has stopped.” Time, like memory, flows but never in a perfectly linear fashion.

Repetition or repeated emphasis is another way in which the novel engages with time. The narrator takes the reader back to the past, traces the events that led to the present, and emphasises the present by repetition. Time stops when Margio kills Anwar Sadat, the central event of the present that is constantly emphasised.

A repository of culture
The purpose of taking the reader back and forth in time is also to present a picture of the cultural milieu in which Kurniawan’s characters are embedded. In this regard, the motif of mythology and story-telling is especially significant. Benedict Anderson, in the Introduction to the novel, writes that Kurniawan established an early connection to literature through the stories of his grandmother and an old lady of his village. One can see the influence of these stories and village histories in both Beauty is a Wound and Man Tiger.

The story of the white tigress, the narrator of Man Tiger informs us, is one of the “many stories [that were] passed between successive storytellers across the generations.” Culture (as defined by the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o) is a collective memory bank of people’s experiences in history. These experiences are narrated and transmitted across generations through personal and collective stories. It is often through these many narratives that people perceive their identities in a culture. Kurniawan’s novel is one such narrative; it is a repository of the culture of a small Indonesian township.

Social Critique
However, Man Tiger does not present an idealised picture of this culture. Far from it. It lays bare the atrocities that are encoded in this society; atrocities that more often than not find a meeting point in the marginalised figures of women in the narrative. The crime itself is a result of oppressive societal codes. Kurniawan shows how the crime not only interlinks two tormented families but also tears them apart. As individuals who uncritically adhere to the codes, the characters in the novel become accomplices in the crime that Margio commits.

One can also read Margio’s crime as an act of rebellion against the encoded norms. This reading is especially valid if one considers the white tigress as a spirit of rebellion, which it was when Margio’s grandfather was possessed by it. The narrator tells us that Margio had heard stories of his grandfather’s prowess and how his elders had resisted the Dutch efforts to abduct young men for forced labour. This passing comment gives a political context to the novel and allows the reader to see Margio as a hero.

As a final thought, I would say that Man Tiger is a short and stunning piece of work, the credit of which goes to both the author and the translator. The novel does contain brutal and violent scenes of sexual assault and marital rape. If you feel triggered by such scenes, perhaps this novel is not for you.