Apple and Knife
Intan Paramaditha
translated by Stephen J. Epstein
First published by Brow Books in Australia, March 2018.
FORMAT: Paperback
LENGTH: 208 pp.
ISBN: 9781925704006
Inspired by horror fiction, myths and fairy tales, Apple and Knife 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.
Mara finds herself brainstorming an ad campaign for Free Maxi Pads, with a little help from the menstruation-eating hag of her childhood. Jamal falls in love with the rich and powerful Bambang, but it is the era of the smiling general and, if he’s not careful, he may find himself recruited to Bambang’s brutal cause. Solihin would give anything to make dangdut singer Salimah his wife – anything at all.
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.
“Sometimes disturbing, often humorous, but always unapologetically feminist... a deeply, brilliantly macabre, visceral collection which pulls very few punches.
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“These are women with swagger, and as such this is a collection for Lilith, not for Eve... Paramaditha’s nimble work ducks and dives, weaving the campy, gothic, and visceral into the weft of societally-conditioned expectations of femininity in order to create warped tapestries of female deviance, going some way towards queer depictions of women in all their transforming, glitchy glory. ”
“The stories in Apple and Knife are raw, fun, excessive, and told with a wink, but they are underlaid with an unsettling awareness of the common fate of “disobedient women”.”
Apple and Knife (UK edition)
Harvill Secker
Hardback, December 2018
Vintage
Paperback, September 2019
“Apple and Knife delivers a short sharp suite of tales. It would be tempting to describe the volume as feminist horror, though undercurrents of violence and misogyny, myth and madness don’t stop it smouldering with black comedy and flickering into moments of unexpected victory. The author throws us into the cauldron of contemporary Indonesia through an eclectic cast of characters – we encounter everyone from musicians to corporate high-flyers to witches.
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“Dark, subversive... Here are fairy tales and myths reworked with a feminist bent.”
“**A The White Review Book of the Year**”
Reviews
“Breaking His Spell: Rewriting the Mythic Female Body in Intan Paramaditha’s Apple and Knife,” Gema Charmaine Gonzales, SARE, Vol. 57, Issue 1/2020.
“Triptych,” Mekong Review, April 2019.
“Books of the Year,” The White Review, December 2018.
“Apple and Knife by Intan Paramaditha, Translated by Stephen J. Epstein,” Rachel Hill, Strange Horizons, December 10, 2018.
“Review: Apple and Knife by Intan Paramaditha,” Will Heath, Books and Bao, December 4, 2018.
“Apple and Knife by Intan Paramaditha,” Annie Zhang, WritingNSW, August 15, 2018.
“Apple and Knife by Intan Paramaditha,” Brooke Boland, ArtsHub, May 28, 2018.
“Apple and Knife: A Riot of Unruly Women,” Emily Bitto, The Monthly, May 4, 2018.
“Lisa Bennett reviews Apple and Knife by Intan Paramaditha,” Lisa Bennett, Australian Book Review, May 2018.
“Apple and Knife by Intan Paramaditha and Ponti by Sharlene Teo,” Dominic Amerena, The Australian, April 28, 2018.
“Intan Paramaditha’s short stories subvert the white fairytales of our childhood,” Shirley Le, SBS, 19 April, 2018.
“Fiction Review: Apple and Knife,” Cameron Woodhead, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 21, 2018.
“Apple and Knife, Intan Paramaditha.” The Saturday Paper, Edition No. 194 MARCH 3 – 9, 2018.
“Apple and Knife by Intan Paramaditha,” Suzanne Steinbruckner, Readings, Feb 26, 2018.
“Disobedient Women,” Norman Erikson Pasaribu, Mekong Review, Feb 8, 2018.
List and mini reviews
“8 books for you to read to celebrate International Women’s Day,” Mashable, March 4, 2022.
“12 Essential Short Story Collections by Women,” Books and Bao, February 15, 2022.
“19 Fantastic Translated Works Of Fiction Every Woman In Her Twenties Should Read,” BuzzFeed, August 21, 2021.
“8 Books by Asian Authors to Add to Your Reading List,” Vogue Australia, March 23, 2021.
“A lauded Indonesian writer’s English debut and 4 more fresh horror books perfect for Halloween,” The Seattle Times, October 22, 2020.
“Southeast Asian Women’s Fiction: 5 Short Reads,” Book Riot, October 5, 2020.
“Nine Must-Read Books in Translation,” The National Centre for Writing, May 5, 2020.
“Recommending Horror in Translation,” Translated Lit, October 31, 2019.
“50 Great Stories Everyone Should Read,” penguin.co.uk, September 20, 2019.
“11 Books You Should Read for ‘Women in Translation Month,” Huffington Post India, August 14, 2019.
“10 Spooky, Beautiful Southeast Asian Ghost Stories,” Electric Literature, June 21, 2019.
“20 Translated Short Story Collections from Around the World,” Electric Literature, May 22, 2019.
“10 Books by Brilliant Women around the World,” Red, March 6, 2019.
“Read Women in 2019: Vintage Classic and New Female Authors.” Vintage, 16 January, 2019.
“10 Short Story Collections about Women,” Book Riot, July 10, 2018.
Interviews on Apple and Knife
“Come with us to the London Book Fair… Ian McEwan, Stefan Hertmans, Intan Paramaditha and Caryl Phillips,” Vintage Books podcast, April 21, 2019.
“Rewriting the Female Narrative,” China Daily, November 2, 2018.
“Apple and Knife, Feminism, and Horror.” BFM Radio, October 24, 2018.
“Five Questions with Intan Paramaditha,” Peril Magazine, September 9, 2018.
“A Feminist Reframing: An Interview with Intan Paramaditha by Norman Erikson Pasaribu,” The Lifted Brow, April 24, 2018.
“Backstory.” 3RRRFM. June 13, 2018.
“Intan Paramaditha is the Feminist Author Who Scares Patriarchy Away,” Globetrotter, June 6, 2018.
“Working with Words: Intan Paramaditha,” The Wheeler Centre, May 7, 2018.
“Intan Paramaditha, a scholar, an author who loves horror,” SBS Radio, May 5, 2018.
“The New Wave: Emerging Female Writers Push the Boundaries,” Sydney Morning Herald, May 4, 2018.
“Translating the Darkness,” Radio New Zealand, January 7, 2018.