Description
A dazzling, provocative debut story collection from celebrated Indonesian writer Intan Paramaditha, putting fierce female characters centre stage in brilliantly funny and sharp twists on fairy tale.
'Dark, subversive... Here are fairy tales and myths reworked with a feminist bent' Tatler
Inspired by horror fiction, myths and fairy tales, Apple and Knife is an unsettling ride that swerves into the supernatural to explore the dangers and power of occupying a female body in today's world.
These stories set in the Indonesian everyday - in corporate boardrooms, in shanty towns, on dangdut stages - reveal a soupy otherworld stewing just beneath the surface. This is subversive feminist horror at its best, where men and women alike are arbiters of fear, and where revenge is sometimes sweetest when delivered from the grave.
Dark, humorous, and vividly realised, Apple and Knife brings together taboos, inversions, sex and death in a heady, intoxicating mix.
About the Author
Intan Paramaditha is a writer and academic. Her novel The Wandering (Harvill Secker, Penguin Random House UK), translated from the Indonesian by Stephen J. Epstein, was nominated for the Stella Prize in Australia and awarded the Tempo Best Literary Fiction Prize in Indonesia, the English PEN Translates Award and the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant from PEN America. She is the author of the short-story collection Apple and Knife and editor of Deviant Disciples: Indonesian Women Poets, part of the Translating Feminisms series by Tilted Axis Press. Her essay 'On the Complicated Questions Around Writing About Travel' was selected for The Best American Travel Writing 2021. She holds a PhD from New York University and teaches Media and Film Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney. intanparamaditha.com
Reviews
A phantasmagorical collection of short stories and reimagined tales, not unlike Angela Carter and Carmen Maria Machado. -- Matthew Janney * Guardian *
Sometimes disturbing, often humorous, but always unapologetically feminist... a deeply, brilliantly macabre, visceral collection which pulls very few punches. * BBC Radio 4 Open Book *
Dark, subversive... Here are fairytales and myths reworked with a feminist bent, with plenty of blood, revenge and horror thrown in... A fun - if unsettling - collection. * Tatler *
A sharply subversive feminist retread of fairy tales and myths. These darkly humorous, sometimes viscerally violent tales are inspired by horror stories, exploring taboos and the female body in the modern world. * i *
These short stories are fiercely funny and feminist and mix the everyday with the supernatural. * Red *
Book Information
ISBN 9781784709792
Author Intan Paramaditha
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 138g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 12mm
