The Book of Jakarta

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A young woman takes a driverless taxi through the streets of Jakarta, only to discover that the destination she is hurtling towards is now entirely submerged...A group of elderly women visit a famous amusement park for one last ride, but things don’t go quite according to plan...The day before her wedding, a bride risks everything to meet her former lover at their favourite seafood restaurant on the other side of the tracks...Despite being the world’s fourth-largest nation – made up of over 17,000 islands – very little of Indonesian history and contemporary politics are known to outsiders.From feudal states and sultanates to a Cold War killing field and a now struggling, flawed democracy – the country’s political history, as well as its literature, defieseasy explanation. Like Indonesia itself, the capital city Jakarta is a multiplicity; irreducible, unpredictable and full of surprises. Traversing the different neighbourhoods and districts, the stories gathered here attempt to capture theessence of contemporary Jakarta and its writing, as well as the ever-changing landscape of the fastest-sinking city in the world.