TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post
Books premium

From Roy to Loewenstein: Books as witnesses to memory and power

Across personal memory, cultural history and global conflict, several books published in 2025 continue to illuminate how power shapes lives and narratives.

1 month ago
Books premium

‘Reflections’: A meditation on Singapore’s regional resilience

Through his collection of essays, author and professor Barry Desker shows how technocratic governance and quiet diplomacy have sustained the island state’s resilience and its enduring, often overlooked ties with Indonesia. ...

1 month ago
Books

As world burns, Amitav Ghosh writes for the future

But his recent work focuses on what he considers the most urgent concern: the accelerating unravelling of the natural world and the moral legacy left for the future. ...

2 months ago

The Latest

Books

'Something to be proud of': UK graphic novel highlights homeless

Passersby ignore a beggar, homophobic insults crowd a wall, a woman burns a note penned to a "victim" – not the usual stuff of comics but all vignettes from a new graphic novel by homeless people that aims to kill the stigma surrounding street life.

5 years ago
Books

Scottish author Douglas Stuart wins Booker Prize for 'Shuggie Bain'

Scottish author Douglas Stuart on Thursday was awarded the 2020 Booker Prize for his acclaimed debut novel "Shuggie Bain", set in his home city of Glasgow.

5 years ago
Books

Four debutants among finalists for UK's Booker Prize

Britain's Booker Prize, whose winner is set to be unveiled on Thursday, this year pits four debut novelists against a pair of established writers for one of the world's most prestigious literary awards.

5 years ago
Books

Virginia Woolf statue campaign gets cash boost from nude controversy

Donations to a fundraising campaign to install a statue of writer Virginia Woolf in London have poured in this week following a furor over a nude tribute unveiled to another feminist trailblazer in the British capital.

5 years ago
Books

French authors to pay fines of bookshops open despite virus closure

One of France's best-known authors, Alexandre Jardin, vowed Sunday that writers would bail out rebel bookshop owners fined for opening in defiance of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

5 years ago
Books

‘Very Bangkok’: In search of the contemporary in the city of senses

A new book about Bangkok familiarizes you with the complexities of the city, inside and out.  

5 years ago
Books

UK independent bookshops go online to reach new audiences

Faced with closures because of coronavirus measures and fierce competition from retail giant Amazon, 250 independent UK bookshops have banded together on a new online platform.

5 years ago
Books

Souvankham Thammavongsa wins Canada's top literary Scotiabank Giller Prize

Souvankham Thammavongsa has won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada's top award for literature, for her short story collection "How To Pronounce Knife".

5 years ago
Books

Eka Kurniawan: A modest literary star

In person, Indonesian literary writer Eka Kurniawan is soft-spoken, calm and modest. But in his writings, he is fierce and bold.

5 years ago
Books

'Sorry Amazon': French supermarket steps up for local booksellers

A leading French supermarket chain announced that it would share its online retailing network with shuttered bookstores and other local businesses, tapping into resentment over Amazon's predominance in the new COVID lockdown.

5 years ago
Books

French bookworms denied their fix in lockdown

First, bookstores across France were ordered to close in a new lockdown seeking to curb an alarming rise in coronavirus cases. Days later, bibliophiles were dealt a further blow as the government banned supermarkets, too, from selling books in a bid to parry claims of unfair competition.

5 years ago
Books

Singapore Writers Festival beams in literary stars

This year's inaugural edition of a fully digital SWF is themed "Intimacy", in response to physical distancing, mobility restrictions and other measures that have created separation during the pandemic. 

5 years ago
Books

'Glamour Boys': Book tells story of gay British MPs who foresaw Hitler's threat

A group of gay and bisexual British lawmakers were among the first to sound the alarm about Adolf Hitler's fascist threat, but - dismissed as "glamour boys" and warmongers - their warnings initially fell on deaf ears, according to a new book.

5 years ago
Books

'Asian Bohemian Chic': Ghea Panggabean celebrates 40 years of fashion

“Fashion fades, style is eternal,” said the esteemed designer Yves Saint Laurent. Truer words have never been spoken, especially in an age when trends rise and fall by the millisecond as season after season of new silhouettes and IT bags come and go.

5 years ago
Books

Keep calm and send your CVs: ‘Lagi Probation’ shares ways to enjoy job search

Lagi Probation (Still on Probation) by Samuel Ray delves into the recruitment process, starting from making CVs to negotiating work contracts.

5 years ago
Books

Chronicles from quarantine: Stories from self-isolation

Writers come together to tell their compelling tales of reflection on the pandemic.

5 years ago
Books

Row in Hungary around children's book fuels fears of rising homophobia

Boldizsar Nagy hoped that the tales in the children's book "Wonderland Is For Everyone" would help youngsters to learn to accept minorities and fight social ostracism.

5 years ago
Books

Musdah Mulia: Injecting spirituality into human rights activism

Muslim scholar Musdah Mulia is not slowing down in her fight for a more humanistic interpretation of Islam, citing her religious faith as the primary driving force in her activism.

5 years ago
Books

How to hold the world's largest book fair in a pandemic

The Frankfurt book fair, the world's largest, is going ahead this week even after a spike in coronavirus infections turned the German city into a high-risk area. 

5 years ago
Books

First collection of Shakespeare's plays sells for almost $10 million

A rare 1623 book that brought together William Shakespeare's plays for the first time sold for a record $9.97 million at auction on Wednesday.

5 years ago
Books

US book stores launch 'Boxed Out' campaign against Amazon

The American Booksellers Association has launched an advertising campaign against Amazon to alert the public to what it calls the growing danger that book stores are under from the online goliath during the coronavirus pandemic.

5 years ago
Books

Marketing Indonesian titles, a challenge in the digital time

With thousands of islands and hundreds of languages and dialects, Indonesia’s rich culture is a fount of inspiration for national literature, which is an attractive prospect ripe for international attention.

5 years ago
Books

Hungarian government calls new children's book 'homosexual propaganda', causing stir

Hungary's nationalist government condemned a book of modern fairy tales for children published by a lesbian group as "homosexual propaganda" and said it should be banned.

5 years ago
Books

Yemen's mini-libraries: 'A candle in the dark'

The idea for the "Yemen Reads" campaign is simple -- to establish mini-libraries across the city where people can borrow books for free,

5 years ago
Books

De Beauvoir's tragic lesbian love story is finally published

A tragic love story that Simone de Beauvoir thought "too intimate" to publish during her lifetime will finally see the light of day Wednesday, 34 years after her death.

5 years ago
Books

7 historical fictions to take you away from 2020 anxiety

There’s nothing like delving deep into history to remind us of humankind’s resilience while also distracting us temporarily -- in a good way -- from our current troubling situation.

5 years ago
Books

'Queen of Crime' Christie's first detective novel marks centenary

It was partly thanks to a bet with her sister that Agatha Christie wrote her first detective novel, and 100 years since it was published she is as popular as ever.

5 years ago
Books

Author promises 'No Filter' look at the Instagram story

Journalist Sarah Frier promises her book "No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram" is a revealing, behind-the-scenes look at how Instagram became a social media sensation as a member of Facebook's family of online services.

5 years ago
Books

Nobel Literature Prize 2020: Controversy or crowdpleaser?

This year's Nobel Literature Prize field is wide open ahead of Thursday's announcement, with literary circles abuzz about whether the nod will go to yet another controversial pick or a crowd-pleaser.

5 years ago
Books

Houellebecq hails writer who says migrants are 'rapists and thieves'

The French writer Michel Houellebecq praises a controversial French polemicist convicted for inciting hatred in his latest book of essays, which will be published Wednesday.

5 years ago

Today's ePost

Wed, March 18, 2026

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.