Courtesy of Erick Setiawan

In his stunning debut novel Of Bees and Mist, Jakarta-born writer Erick Setiawan takes readers on a magical and emotional journey through a gorgeously described fantastical world.

This adult fairytale, peopled with exquisite and memorable characters, explores themes of friendship, love, betrayal and loss, with its roots firmly in the writer's childhood in Indonesia.

Born in Jakarta in 1975 to Chinese-Indonesian parents, Erick Setiawan grew up a quiet and shy child with a large extended family of gifted storytellers. There was never a lack of drama in the family - and thankfully so.

"At any given time, an uncle was always cheating on his wife, and an aunt was always angry at another aunt and letting the whole family know about it," Setiawan says.

He was also constantly surrounded by local folklore and superstitions.

"When we were little, my brothers and I had a Javanese nanny who liked to tell us bedtime stories," he says. "Our nanny was also a Muslim, which made her stories a curious blend of ancient Javanese superstitions and Islamic beliefs. Because of her, I developed a passion for folklore and mythology."

But the common anti-Chinese sentiment in Indonesia during his upbringing meant his childhood was often tense and filled with anxiety; to escape, he found comfort in books and his fertile imagination. Books also provided a refuge when his parents sent him to very strict Catholic schools that acted as microcosms of the full-blown totalitarian regime that Indonesia once was.

"Books were my escape," Setiawan says. "I didn't really envision myself as a writer then, but I definitely saw myself as a lifelong reader."

Motivated by the soul-crushing oppression and injustice felt by many Chinese-Indonesians at the time, Setiawan refused to accept the status quo, believing firmly there was another life that he could embrace. He made a bold move by leaving his family and moving to the United States. For a young man of 16 who barely spoke English and knew only three people in the United States, it was a drastic decision.

So determined was he then that he taught himself English by reading to the point where it is almost impossible to discern that it is not his native tongue.

"I was very hard on myself then. Appalled by what I believed was my ineptitude, I took a greater refuge in the written word, and it was through novels that I began to see the power and beauty of the English language," he says.

"I told myself that if I didn't make a success out of my life in the US, then I would have to go back to Indonesia as a failure, and to me that wasn't an option.

"So I kept pushing myself to do more. Looking back, I find it difficult to relate to that young man anymore - he seemed so brave and resolved on making it no matter the obstacles."

That same determination and conviction brought Setiawan to one of the best universities in the United States, Stanford, although not before his first choice, Harvard, rejected him.

Setiawan, forever modest, likes to joke that Stanford had lower standards than Harvard and to this day claims they admitted him simply by mistake.

His initial aspiration at Stanford was to study English, but his quiet demeanor and insecurity about his newly adopted language prevented him from enrolling in classes that required him to speak. Instead, he opted for less verbally challenging majors - psychology and computer science - eventually earning a dual Bachelor's degree in 1998. He even went as far as securing a Master's degree in computer science in 2000.

After graduating, Setiawan started work as a software engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Within three months, he knew that it was the wrong profession for him; his heart was not in it.

Once again, reading became his gateway to escape from the tediousness of his profession, and soon enough, he began writing in his spare time. As a result, he started coming in late to work and taking longer lunch hours, to the annoyance of upper management.

Two unpublished novels - "awful and must have been rejected hundreds of times" - and countless short stories later, Setiawan finally came upon the germ that would evolve into Of Bees and Mist.

"I got the idea to write a story about these two rival families," he says. "It turned out that living with my dramatic family all those years in Jakarta paid off, since from them I had collected an endless supply of tales and anecdotes, many of which ended up in the book."

After working on it for almost four years, he finished the book in December 2007 and knew instantly that this one was special.

Through a friend, Setiawan contacted a woman who was a foreign rights agent at Trident Media in New York. After reading a few chapters, she asked to see the full manuscript.

Just three weeks later, he received her life-changing email: An agent at her organization had read the manuscript, absolutely loved it and wanted to represent Setiawan. About a month later, the book was sold to Simon & Schuster, who released his novel in August this year.

Citing Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Charles Dickens and Gabriel Garc*a M*rquez as some of his major influences, Setiawan strives to improve with each book. Even now, as a published and acclaimed author with another book in the works, he still cites self-doubt as his biggest challenge.

"There were many times during the writing when I simply stopped and thought I could not go on with it. After all, I came to the US as an immigrant, and English is my second language. Who am I to even attempt to write a book?" he says.

"But inevitably my stubbornness prevailed and I went back to writing. I think *self-doubt* will always be a part of me, which isn't necessarily terrible, since it will keep me on my toes."

As for the message he finds himself repeating over and over to readers or fellow writers alike, Setiawan says it is to "find the emotional truth in the story, and the rest will follow".

Popular

Volcano erupts in North Sulawesi, hundreds evacuated

Dubai roads, airport reel from floods after record rains

Ramadan boosts consumer confidence, retail sales