Bøger af Putu Oka Sukanta

The Turning Wheel is the second in a series of three novels based on Putu Oka's life in the years following the events of 1965. While the first volume in the trilogy, Threads of Dignity, is a fictionalized account of his own experience of arrest, torture, and imprisonment, The Turning Wheel is an exploration of the lives of women whose menfolk shared Putu Oka's fate. Struggling for survival in a hostile environment, these women not only have to supply the material needs of their husbands in prison-everything from food to medicines-but also provide for the immediate demands of their families for food, shelter, and education. As the years pass, the draw on inner reserves of strength and resourcefulness and a growing sense of group solidarity in a struggle that persists long after their men return to a world they no longer recognize.

So begins a nightmare journey into the cruelty and deprivation of political imprisonment in the aftermath of the 1965 attempted coup and counter-coup that reshaped modern Indonesia. For ten years, Putu Oka Sukanta's protagonist Mawa is imprisoned without trial, subjected to interrogation under torture, and denied his basic freedoms and livelihood. Without any way of knowing how long his imprisonment will last, or whether he will ever emerge from it alive, he is initially dependent on others-both friend and foe-for his survival. Yet with the passing of time, and a painful adjustment to the realities of prison life, his survival becomes a personal quest that involves both body and soul. Weakened physically, Mawa grows spiritually, to the point where his experience of imprisonment becomes a story of survival against all odds. Enriched by sketches of daily life in prison and revealing insights into the backgrounds and outlooks of people Indonesia's New Order saw as betrayers of the nation, reads of Dignity occupies an important place in world literature. It is both a record of a little-known and often misunderstood chapter in the history of modern Indonesia and a story of courage and resilience in the face of barbarity. In speaking to the nation, it cries out to the world, asking to be heard in the name of our common humanity.

Spaces is an invitation to reflect on the meaning of life, a healing balm on the wounds of civilization.