First published in 1922, the novel "Sitti Nurbaya: A Love Unrealized," by Marah Rusli, retains the poignancy that made it a modern Indonesian classic. In terms of its social impact in what was then the Dutch East Indies, "Sitti Nurbaya" may be compared to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in the ante-bellum United States. Even to this day, the issues of injustice and indignities suffered by women that this novel raised continue to be debated throughout the country.

Rich in description, dense with ironic foreboding and the inexorable workings of fate, Sitti Nurbaya is Samsu and "Sitti Nurbaya"'s...

First published in 1927, The Rose of Cikembang is an excellent example of the so-called peranakan literature of the Netherlands East Indies, a literary form that was written in a variant of the Malay language then prevalent in the urban centers of the Indies and a forerunner of todays Indonesian. Peranakan literature was created by writers and publishers of largely Chinese descent and flourished between 1900 and the Japanese Occupation beginning in 1942. The Rose of Cikembang was one of the most beloved novels of popular and prolific writer Kwee Tek Hoay. Highly sentimental,...

The Golden Road describes a young man of humble urban origins in China's lower Yangzi Valley who foresees the opportunities for wealth and position in the early years of Deng Xiaoping's "reform and opening up" policies and who then over the next twenty years creates a diversified business empire. This novel thus tells of the reemergence in China of a dynamic, often reckless and shady, commercial class during the momentous transformation of that country during the Deng Xiaoping era. Business people used many tricks as well as connections with the local power structure to survive and succeed in...