5/29/2023 0 Comments The wandering intan paramadithaThe Wandering, Intan Paramaditha, Stephen J Epstein (trans) (Harvill Secker, February 2020)Īt first, it is more than she has ever dreamed. In a magical realist twist of events, the narrator lands herself a lover, who happens to be a demon, and makes a Faustian pact with him for a pair of magical red shoes-part Wizard of Oz, part Hans Christian Andersen-that can take her anywhere. Now twenty-seven, she teaches English as a second language and wishes to escape the city she calls home. Born in Yogyakarta, she moved to Jakarta from an early age with her parents to lead better lives. While protagonists of choose-your-own-adventure narratives are typically obscured to allow room for the reader’s subjectivity, the narrator in The Wandering is clearly defined, bringing instead a sense of role-play. The wandering narrator, addressed in the second person befitting the conventions of the form, travels along multiple routes to Berlin, New York, and even outer space as she faces ordeals that illustrate the privileges of going abroad and the limitations of individual choice. “Travelling is the most ancient desire”, writes Intan Paramaditha in her first novel, a choose-your-own-adventure story published this February as global mobility ground to a halt. The story begins in Jakarta, a hubbub of street vendors, motorbikes, and calls to prayer from mosque loudspeakers.
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