Stories from the Islands is a bilingual short story anthology featuring works by ten emerging Indonesian writers selected as part of Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2025. These writers represent the diverse voices from Indonesia’s 17,000 islands, reflecting the richness of the nation’s ethnicities, local languages, cultures, and stories. The anthology explores the dynamics and contemporary issues shaping Indonesia today, with stories that range from local cultural themes to pressing social concerns. Through these narratives, the collection offers a vibrant and multifaceted portrait of modern Indonesia as seen through the eyes of its young writers.
Catagory: Fiction
Jannah is ^NOT Average
“Be someone who’ll make me proud.”
Following the words of her late grandmother, 16 years old Jannah Ismail had set her mind on becoming a medical doctor, much to the scepticism and disbelief of those around her. To prove her worth, Average Jane-nah must first gain admission to the prestigious science stream in her school, despite her C in Mathematics.
Jannah’s next course of actions resulted in her getting transferred to another school, grouped in the same class with the carefree, troublemaking art stream students of 4-D, who had, for unjustifiable reasons, been banished by the principal to a spooky and mysterious old house located at the back of the school for more than a year.
Miss Eleanor Yee, a young teacher aspiring to change the world, had tasked herself with several missions; to help Jannah become Doctor Jannah, and to bring 4-D back to their old classroom. For these to happen, she would need all the help she could get from the all-rounder ‘superior’ science streamers of 4-A, aka the school’s own Marie Curies and Isaac Newtons, without the imperious principal meddling in their ways.
Fierceland
After many years abroad, Roz and Harun return to Malaysian Borneo for the funeral of their father Yusuf – and to reckon with their inheritance. A renowned palm-oil baron during Malaysia’s economic rise, Yusuf built the family’s immense wealth by destroying huge tracts of rainforest. What his children know is that he was also responsible for the violent disappearance of a man who stood in his way.
Harun has become a successful tech entrepreneur in Los Angeles, Roz is an artist struggling to stay afloat in Sydney. Now they want to return something their father stole from the forests of their homeland. In their quest for redemption they grapple with the legacy of power and corruption, dreamers and exiles, thugs and zealots. Most dangerous of all, they are haunted – by the ghosts of colonialism, the ghosts of family, the ghosts of language, and the ghosts of the forest itself.
A trailblazing journey across the globe, Fierceland weaves the past and the present into an emotionally powerful family saga that plays out at a mythical scale.
Little Hero’s Wish
Eleven-year-old Ying Xiong’s name means ‘hero’. And that’s what he wants to be. But what’s the best way to be a hero?
Ying Xiong finds it hard to navigate through his troubled growing-up years in 1950s Singapore. He has an absent father who left him for his home village in China. His mother has little time for him as she slogs hard all day to support their family. At first, he looks up to his Silat Road neighbour Dave, a mild police inspector who likes to harp on about the value of exercising patience and self-control. Then, an impressive senior officer John Wei turns up in his rough neighbourhood and shows him what it’s like to take action and get things done. When Xiong runs into a series of difficulties, he is bewildered about who he wishes to emulate and the kind of person he wants to become. As he stumbles through his choices and the paths to take, Xiong discovers what it means to be a real hero.
Little Hero’s Wish is a work of fiction inspired by real events from the childhood years of the author’s father in 1950s Singapore. It follows from Xiong’s journey in the award-winning and bestselling Little Hero, inspired by the author’s family’s lived experiences in post-war 1940s Singapore.
In Safe Hands
You’d do everything for your dad. But she’ll do anything.
The high life is over. Her business is bust.
Penniless, Genevieve Ho returns from Singapore to her wealthy but ailing elderly father in Fulham, London. She’ll care for him and rebuild their fractured relationship. That was the plan—until she meets his new hostile caregiver.
Her dad is kept on a tight leash by his caregiver, who is perfect in his eyes. His confusion worsens. He treats her like family, and starts mistaking her for his own daughter. Genevieve fights to reclaim her place. Instead, she becomes the unwanted, freeloading intruder.
But when a Chinese man is brutally attacked in East London, Genevieve is not the only one with something to lose. Someone is watching the house. Someone who knows the victim— and the caregiver. As dark secrets and past betrayals catch up with her, the truth is about to erupt.
There is little time left.
Genevieve’s dad is slipping away. Her family’s safety is at risk. But how do you fight someone who’s already won?
Meant to be in Manila
Before Sunrise meets Love Hard in this RomCom set on a walking tour of Manila, Philippines.
Sophia Eunice “Piayaya” Hermosa, (now former) Philippine history teacher and a believer of meant-to-be, is on a plane back home to Manila after being ghosted by her Canadian boyfriend (whom she uprooted her life for) just as she arrived in Vancouver, Canada.
Raphael Alfonso “Rafal” Herbert, urban housing architect and artist, is going home to his father’s homeland, Philippines, to chase after the girl who ghosted him—and convince her of his love.
By some miracle of the romance comedy gods, Sophia and Raphael meet on the plane bound for Manila and strike a bargain to help each other with their respective ghost-ers. Raphael will pretend to be her fiancé at her brother’s wedding and Sophia will drive him around the city to look for the girl he loves.
As they search for closure from their failed relationships and tour Manila along the way, it won’t be long until they find out that they’re exactly where they’re meant to be: with each other.
The Prau with the Silent Soul
Wefada Marwan, an academic, is thrust into captaining her family’s shipping business. She must also face up to her nascent feelings for her much younger Algerian student, Elemine, which she initially tries to deny. However, as their romance blossoms, she starts remembering lessons from her grandparents’ marriage to navigate her own.
Fatimah, Wefada’s grandmother, too, fell in love with an Arab man—Ben Qortubi. He migrated to Malaysia, established their shipping business, and started a family with Fatimah. But tragedy struck during the Japanese invasion of Malaysia, silencing Wefada’s grandfather forever.
Will Wefada successfully navigate the choppy waters of looking out for her family and their business while finding love?
In The Prau with the Silent Soul, Faisal Tehrani explores transgressive love, intergenerational trauma, and most importantly, the Malayan people’s unbreakable bond with their sea, which can be a nightmare and a source of love and sustenance. This is a story that has emerged from the sea and that returns to it.
Merdeka Generation Groovers and Other Stories
This collection of short stories celebrates the Merdeka Generation. These are the baby boomers born a little after the Second World War, following the heels of the Pioneer Generation. These Seniors experienced the development and growth of modern Singapore. They were the people who lived through four National Anthems: ‘God Save the King’, ‘God Save the Queen’, ‘Negara-Ku’, and ‘Majulah Singapura’. The majority of them had helped built this nation.
During the colonial period and pre-independent days, many Singaporeans were poor and were living in adverse conditions, without running water, electricity, and amenities. Before HDB flats were built, they had been living in kampungs. These shaped their mindset. Most of them struggled to work hard so that their children would not suffer as they had suffered.
In the 21st Century, this band of the population is in their seventies. New problems surfaced for them as their children became smarter than them, or some moved abroad. There are many MG Seniors without their children and grandchildren in this country. This collection attempts to highlight some of the issues facing this group who had to cope with such emotional issues, modern technology, and the fast pace of life in modern Singapore. They are an admirable group as they had the resilience to progress as this nation had progressed.
This book also celebrates the music industry of the 1960s and 70s, both locally and internationally.
Chronically Online
Destiny Chen had her eyes set on working in the mental health field for as long as she could remember. @DestinyIzzaLeo, however, stumbles right into the accidental spotlight as a content creator. While she tries to juggle her life as a streamer alongside being a university student, she finds herself torn between passion and opportunity. However, she may not need to make that choice, as her online career is at risk of being short-lived due to her reputation becoming shrouded in controversy.
As the unofficial leader of the ‘Triple D’s’, one of the most well-known content creator groups in the space, @DawnGames is no stranger to the highs and lows of being in the public eye. He has been betrayed, disrespected, hunted, spoken ill of, and doubted by his peers and audience. While @DawnGames takes it in stride, Donovan Cider is left to pick up the pieces of his shattered heart each time.
Destiny and Dawn have never once crossed paths, but Dawn seems repelled by her charm.
Their best friends believe that they are made for each other. But Dawn is harboring a secret that could destroy and change everything they know about each other.
Will his friends be proven wrong, or is there more to Dawn and Destiny’s shared connection?
The Shaman’s Circle
In late nineteenth century Tana Toraja, Indonesia, Minah, an orphaned shaman, makes a dangerous pact with a jinn, Siblis, promising to sacrifice someone she loves. As an orphan with no family, love is a mystery to her. When Minah meets and marries Pong Marno, she believes she’s finally escaped her fate, but their happiness is short-lived. On their wedding night, Pong Marno is murdered by a rival shaman, ensuring Minah fulfills her dark bargain.
Years later, in 1985, Julia, a Malaysian woman desperate to have a child, seeks Minah’s help. Minah performs a ritual that grants Julia the gift of motherhood, but what begins as a miracle quickly takes a sinister turn, drawing Julia into a world of ancient rivalries and dark magic in The Shaman’s Circle.