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The Sea Speaks His Name

Leila S. Chudori
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In the twilight hours of a day in March, Biru Laut was ambushed by four unknown men. Together with his friends, Daniel, Sunu and Alex, he was taken to an unknown location. For months they were held captive, interrogated, beaten and tortured into answering one sole question: Who stood behind the rebellious student movements at that time?
Biru Laut’s younger sister, who, along with other family members of kidnapped student activists, struggled to put the pieces of the puzzle together and to find answers to their never-ending questions.
While her parents appear to be in denial and remain hopeful that Biru Laut will one day come back to sit at the family table again, Asmara Jati engages alongside the Missing Persons Commission Team led by Aswin Pradana in order to strive to find traces of those who went missing and to record the testimonies of those who returned.
This stirring story of Biru Laut and his friends is the story of the desaparecidos of Indonesia. It is the story of a momentous-and still seldom written about-period of Indonesian history that led to the end of dictatorship in Indonesia.

Published: Feb/2020

ISBN: 9789814882316

Length: 322 Pages

The Sea Speaks His Name

Leila S. Chudori

In the twilight hours of a day in March, Biru Laut was ambushed by four unknown men. Together with his friends, Daniel, Sunu and Alex, he was taken to an unknown location. For months they were held captive, interrogated, beaten and tortured into answering one sole question: Who stood behind the rebellious student movements at that time?
Biru Laut’s younger sister, who, along with other family members of kidnapped student activists, struggled to put the pieces of the puzzle together and to find answers to their never-ending questions.
While her parents appear to be in denial and remain hopeful that Biru Laut will one day come back to sit at the family table again, Asmara Jati engages alongside the Missing Persons Commission Team led by Aswin Pradana in order to strive to find traces of those who went missing and to record the testimonies of those who returned.
This stirring story of Biru Laut and his friends is the story of the desaparecidos of Indonesia. It is the story of a momentous-and still seldom written about-period of Indonesian history that led to the end of dictatorship in Indonesia.

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Leila S. Chudori

Leila S. Chudori is an Indonesian author and female journalist. She worked at TEMPO news magazine from 1989 to 2017. Leila is the author of several anthologies of short stories, two novels, TV and film scripts. Her novel Pulang (Home), also translated into English by John H. McGlynn, won the Khatulistiwa Literary Award in 2013 and was included as one of the 75 Notable Translations of 2015 by World Literature Today. Pulang was also translated into French, German, Dutch and Italian.