Ceremony

A coming-of-age tale, a tapestry of erotic and tragic liaisons, a dreamscape of nightmare and wonders, the novel Ceremony, is above all, a paean to the ceremony-rich life of the Benuaq Dayak people of Kalimantan. This post-modern novel took the Indonesian literary scene by storm when it won the Jakarta Arts Council's novel writing competition award in 1976. The author, relatively unknown when he received the award, went on to establish himself as one of Indonesia's major literary figures. After almost four decades, Ceremony retains its power to thrill, awe, and mystify readers.