People from Oetimu

"For a novel engaged with the tangled postcolonial history of the island of Timor—and with how myths are made—People from Oetimu is remarkably direct. In a vigorous, no-nonsense style, Felix K. Nesi delivers horror, violence, and absurdity in equal measure and with intimate immediacy. Once it is all sprinkled with that wry black humor, you end up with a definite page-turner."—Angel Igov

"A spirited and moving takedown of colonialisms Portuguese, Japanese, and Indonesian, this novel from East Timor reinvents political literature for the 21st century."—Siddhartha Deb

"The ingredients of good storytelling—a sharp sense of humor, subtlety, and social critique—all appear organic in People from Oetimu. The writer deftly and accurately depicts the culture and everyday lives of people in Timor."—Judges of the 2018 Jakarta Arts Council’s best book of the year award

"An extraordinary novel. Told through dark humor, it is a story of conflict and the depravity of war in East Timor, of sex and sopi, of religion and the state . . . Reading this book makes me all the more convinced that historians are nothing more than failed novelists."—Andi Achdian, Professor of Indonesian Political History, Universitas Nasional

"Controversial, wry, and insanely readable, Felix K. Nesi's People from Oetimu made him an overnight sensation. Hailing from the war-ravaged island of Timor, the novel recounts the misadventures of a town torn apart by corruption, blind ambition, and violence as told through the myopic eyes of its inhabitants. But don't let the serious subject matter fool you. Nesi laces his book with black humor and satire, treating its subject and cast of misfits with as much disdain as sympathy. In his dark little corner of the world, no one is truly innocent, yet neither are they truly at fault. The truth lies somewhere in the grey zone, and you have to push more than you thought possible to get there"—Raka Ibrahim, The Jakarta Post

"Nesi’s prose, translated from Indonesian into English by Lara Norgaard, is succinct and polished, matter-of-fact even . . . 'Vital' is a good word to describe People From Oetimu. The novel courses with energy and urgency, making it an important event in the world of contemporary political fiction."—Nate Zipp, The Christian Science Monitor