{"product_id":"a-dark-tale-from-cottonwood-grove-9789354478949","title":"A Dark Tale From Cottonwood Grove","description":"\u003cp\u003eCursed with a cleft lip and a disreputable father, Mat has been an outcast since\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebirth in Cottonwood Grove, his village in Indonesia. Never having known love\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eor kindness, he grows up to be a violent and aggressive man, ever ready to kill\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eanyone who annoys him. Inayatun is the village beauty, surrounded by admirers, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand flagrantly promiscuous. Miraculously, when this unlikely couple meets, they\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efind true love and happiness in each other. But the past won't let them be. There\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eare too many in the village who have scores to settle with Mat, and who lust after\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInayatun. A plot is hatched which leaves Inayatun and her unborn baby dead.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMat is accused of the murders but is saved from the gallows by the testimony of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ehis grandfather, who mysteriously reappears after 15 years. But the people of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCottonwood Grove take the law into their own hands. A vigilante mob attacks\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ehim and leaves him for dead.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMat's story is recounted in a coffee shop by the notorious ne'er-do-well Warto\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKemplung. What at first seems like a tale of small-town scapegoating and defiant\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etrue love ultimately reveals a grudge nursed for generations, and the animosity\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebetween peasant farmers and corrupt government forces. Amongst Warto's\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003elisteners is a journalist who decides to serialize the story in his newspaper. But in a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003estartling turn of events, Warto disappears, and a stranger appears on the journalist's\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edoorstep-leaving him to wonder: who was it who died? Who killed who?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this brilliant tour de force that combines Javanese oral tradition and urban\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003elegend with the literary frame of the unreliable narrator, Mahfud Ikhwan has\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eestablished himself as one of the most exciting new literary voices to emerge\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efrom Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Speaking Tiger Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/06\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9789354478949\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 202\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.53lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.46d","brand":"Mahfud Ikhwan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52472881676469,"sku":"9789354478949","price":29.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_6373b9f1-28fc-4188-879a-d170642c1a0f.jpg?v=1777444647","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/a-dark-tale-from-cottonwood-grove-9789354478949","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}