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Arts

Indonesian travel novel a tribute to open borders

'The Wandering' attacks male privilege, but extols a bygone era of nomadic freedom

Indonesian feminist writer Intan Paramaditha. "There are lots of women authors back in Indonesia," she says, "but the gatekeepers for recognition and awards are all men." (Courtesy of Intan Paramaditha) 

BANGKOK -- More than nine years ago the Indonesian feminist writer Intan Paramaditha began working on her first novel, a structurally ambitious pop fable that aimed primarily at liberating women from traditional roles to take to the roads of the world.

"Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go wandering" was the tagline when the book was published in her homeland in 2017 under the title "Gentayanga," a name that the author says is often used to "describe ghosts who are not in the world of the living but have not crossed over to the other world. ... That state of being neither here nor there."

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