presenting
People from Oetimu
in conversation with Ricky Moody
Harvard Book Store welcomes Lara Norgaard—PhD student in comparative literature at Harvard and recipient of the Vladimir Herzog Prize for human rights journalism—for a discussion of her new novel People from Oetimu. She will be joined in conversation by Rick Moody—Professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, and author of six novels, and three collections of stories.
About People from Oetimu
A masterful literary debut for fans of Salman Rushdie, Gabriel García Márquez, and Namwali Serpell from an equally ambitious and form-breaking political writer
Combining humor and history, pathos and hijinks, this hypnotizing debut novel introduces readers to a writer at the forefront of Indonesian literature.
In 1998, men living on the border between West and East Timor are gathering at the police station to watch the World Cup. They train their eyes on Brazilian superstar Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima, urging him to step it up and beat the French. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, political insurgents are in the process of invading the village, with plans to kill.
From there, Felix K. Nesi’s formidable debut novel cycles backward in time, to the independence movements against Portuguese rule in the 1970s, the period of Japanese occupation in the 1940s, before returning to the events of 1998. The pain of years of domination and violent conflict recurs.
Nesi’s eye for the absurd brings a levity to the text: bureaucratic acrobatics, European officials who think themselves invincible, and macho charades all get flipped on their heads. His diverse source material – articles in newspapers, fables circulated in Timor’s robust oral tradition – lend themselves to a propulsive narrative power and an intoxicating reading experience that effortlessly captures complex historical events.
Praise for People from Oetimu
“For a novel engaged with the tangled postcolonial history of the island of Timor—and with how myths are made—People from Oetimu is remarkably direct. In a vigorous, no-nonsense style, Felix K. Nesi delivers horror, violence, and absurdity in equal measure and with intimate immediacy. Once it is all sprinkled with that wry black humor, you end up with a definite page-turner.”—Angel Igov
“A spirited and moving takedown of colonialisms Portuguese, Japanese, and Indonesian, this novel from East Timor reinvents political literature for the 21st century.”—Siddhartha Deb
“The ingredients of good storytelling—a sharp sense of humor, subtlety, and social critique—all appear organic in People from Oetimu. The writer deftly and accurately depicts the culture and everyday lives of people in Timor.”—Judges of the 2018 Jakarta Arts Council’s best book of the year award
Bios
Lara Norgaard is a PhD student in comparative literature at Harvard. Among other things, she writes about collective memory of state violence, leftist cultural circulation between Latin America and Southeast Asia, and histories of U.S.- backed, anti-communist military dictatorships. Her reporting alongside a team of five Brazilian reporters on forced displacements in Rio de Janeiro received the Vladimir Herzog Prize for human rights journalism.
Rick Moody is the author of six novels (including The Ice Storm), three collections of stories (including Demonology), and three works of nonfiction. He writes regularly about music and teaches at Tufts University.
