Thirteen years after breaking into Indonesia’s literary firmament with his debut Bahasa Indonesia novel, Cantik Itu Luka (Beauty Is A Wound), author Eka Kurniawan makes his way onto the world’s stage: The English language version of the book received the inaugural World Readers Award on Tuesday and his second novel, Lelaki Harimau (Man Tiger) was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Book International Prize a couple of weeks earlier.
The World Readers Award, organised by the Hong Kong and Australia-based Asia Pacific Writers and Translators association, was given out in Hong Kong. According to the award’s website, worldreadersaward.com, Eka, who could not attend the ceremony, said is a delivered statement that he was “happy, humbled and honoured”.