In Translation: A Book Club / Indonesian

In Translation: A Book Club  

Join us for the third series of In Translation: A Book Club, where we explore Apple and Knife / Sihir Perempuan, a celebrated short-story collection by Indonesian author Intan Paramaditha .

Read the book in either the Indonesian original or in the English translation by Stephen J. Epstein. Purchase the book via Lost In Books, our multilingual bookshop, choose your session and register today.

Apple and Knife / Sihir Perempuan author Intan Paramaditha, translated by Stephen J. Epstein.

Inspired by horror fiction, myths and fairy tales, Apple and Knife by Indonesian feminist cult author Intan Paramaditha, is an unsettling ride that swerves into the supernatural to explore the dangers and power of occupying a female body in today’s world. These short fictions set in the Indonesian everyday—in corporate boardrooms, in shanty towns, on dangdut stages—reveal a soupy otherworld stewing just beneath the surface. Sometimes wacky and always engrossing, this is subversive feminist horror at its best, where men and women alike are arbiters of fear, and where revenge is sometimes sweetest when delivered from the grave. 

In the globally connected and fast-developing Indonesia of Apple and Knife, taboos, inversions, sex and death all come together in a heady, intoxicating mix full of pointed critiques and bloody mutilations. Women carve a place for themselves in this world, finding ways to subvert norms or enacting brutalities on themselves and each other. 

The stories in Apple and Knife are drawn from two short story collections Sihir Perempuan, originally published in 2005, and Kumpulan Budak Setan, a collaboration between three authors, including Paramaditha, originally published in 2010. For the purposes of this discussion, the Indonesian-language book we will be discussing alongside Apple and Knife is Sihir Perempuan.  

Session 1: Saturday 13 June 2026. 1 pm – 3 pm 

Think+DO Tank Foundation Community House, 2/40 Harris Street, Fairfield. 

Session 2: Saturday 27 June 2026. 1 pm – 3 pm 

Seminar room 1, Ultimo Community Centre. 40 William Henry Street ULTIMO NSW 2007. Enter from via Bulwara Road 

Simple get tickets and select the session you would like to attend.

Intan Paramaditha is an Indonesian author and academic based in Sydney. She holds a Ph.D. from New York University and has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the 2025-2026 Civitella Ranieri Fellowship. Her literary works include the novel The Wandering (Harvill Secker 2020, translated by Stephen J. Epstein), which was longlisted for the Stella Prize in Australia and received the English PEN Translates Award. Her books have been translated into multiple languages, including English, Polish, Turkish, and Thai, with Italian and Japanese translations forthcoming. Paramaditha has been profiled in the media including The Guardian, BBC Radio 4, and ABC News, and her essays have been featured in The Best American Travel Writing 2021, Literary Hub, and The Nation.  

Stephen J. Epstein is a translator and academic at Victoria University of Wellington where he is Associate Professor. His research and publications focus on contemporary Korean society and popular culture, and he has translated several works of Korean and Indonesian fiction. Recent books include The Korean Wave: A Sourcebook, co-edited with Yun Mi Hwang (Academy of Korean Studies Press, 2016) and his translation of Intan Paramaditha’s novel The Wandering: A Red Shoes Adventure (Harvill Secker, 2020). He has also co-produced two documentaries on the Korean underground music scene with Timothy Tangherlini “Our Nation: a Korean Punk Rock Community” (2001); “Us and Them: Korean Indie Rock in a K-pop World” (2014).  

Tiffany Tsao is a writer and literary translator. Her novels include But Won't I Miss Me and Under Your Wings (released abroad as The Majesties). Her translations of Indonesian fiction have been awarded the NSW Premier's Translation Prize, the PEN Translation Prize, and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. She holds a PhD in English from UC-Berkeley and currently works as Deputy Editor at the Sydney Review of Books and Editor at Dalang Publishing.