Powerful blend of science fiction, absurdism and alternative-historical realism that aims to destabilise the heteronormative world and expose its underlying rot. Translated by Tiffany Tsao.

Inspired by Simone Weil’s concept of ‘decreation’ and drawing on Batak and Christian cultural elements, in Happy Stories, Mostly Pasaribu puts queer characters in situations and plots conventionally filled by hetero characters.

In one story, a staff member is introduced to their new workplace - a department of Heaven devoted to archiving unanswered prayers. In another, a woman’s attempt to vacation in Vietnam after her gay son commits suicide turns into a nightmarish failed escape. And in a speculative-historical third, a young man finds himself haunted by the tale of a giant living in colonial-era Sumatra.

Longlisted
The 2022 International Booker Prize
Published by
Tilted Axis Press
Publication date

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Norman Erikson Pasaribu

Norman Erikson Pasaribu

About the Author

A writer of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, Norman Pasaribu was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1990.
More about Norman Erikson Pasaribu
Tiffany Tsao

Tiffany Tsao

About the Translator

Tiffany Tsao translates Indonesian fiction and poetry into English, and also writes fiction.
More about Tiffany Tsao

The bittersweet stories of Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s Happy Stories, Mostly – in a translation by Tiffany Tsao that shimmers and soars – range from the heart-wrenching to the absurd, creating a vibrant mosaic of contemporary Indonesia.

— The 2022 International Booker Prize judges