Shackles: Novel

Dr. Sukartono and his independent-minded wife, Tini, are facing marital problems when Rohaya the singer enters their life. Unlike Tini, who refuses to play the role of self-sacrificing wife, Rohaya is ready to become the devoted wife to Sukartono. On the surface, Shackles dissects the old romantic trope: the love triangle. But Shackles also illustrates the confusion experienced by many Indonesians of the pre-independence generation; they struggle to overcome problems stemming from their tradition-bound society, but in the end they realize that by changing into a new type of person that is neither Eastern nor Western, the situation might grow worse.

• Armijn Pane, Author

  Armijn Pane is the co-founder of the literary journal, Pujangga Baru. Throughout the 1930s Armijn wrote many poems, short stories, and literary criticism. He worked briefly as an editor at the Balai Pustaka publishing house. He is considered as one of the many writers who laid the groundwork for Generation ’45 writers. He also published a history of the Chinese since the 19th century and a book on Indonesian language development.

• John H. McGlynn, Translator

  John H. McGlynn has translated several dozen publications under his own name, and through the Lontar Foundation, which he co-founded in 1987, has ushered into print close to two hundred books on Indonesian language, literature, and culture. He is the Indonesian country editor for MĀNOA, a literary journal published by the University of Hawai'i Press the senior editor for I-Lit, an on-line journal focusing on Indonesian literature in translation; a contributing editor to Words Without Borders and Warscapes, U.S. based literary journals; and an editor advisor for Jurnal Sastra, an Indonesian-language on-line journal. He is also a frequent speaker at seminars both in Indonesia and abroad.