Dalam epik ini, kisah Amba dan Bhisma dalam Mahabharata bertaut (dan bertabrakan) dengan kisah hidup dua orang Indonesia dengan latar kekerasan tahun 1965. Amba anak sulung seorang guru di Kadipura, Jawa Tengah. Ia meninggalkan kota kecilnya, belajar sastra Inggris di UGM dan bertunangan dengan Salwa Munir, seorang dosen ilmu pendidikan yang mencintainya. Pada suatu hari di Kediri, ia bertemu dengan Bhisma Rashad, seorang dokter muda lulusan Universitas Leipzig yang bekerja di sebuah rumah sakit. Percintaan mereka yang intens terputus mendadak di tahun 1965, di tengah ketegangan dan kekerasan politik setelah Peristiwa G30S di Kediri dan Yogya. Bhisma tiba-tiba hilang---ketika Amba hamil. Beberapa tahun kemudian, setelah Amba menikah dengan seorang peneliti keturunan Jerman, datang kabar bahwa Bhisma meninggal. Ia meninggal di Pulau Buru. Rupanya selama itu, sejak sebuah bentrokan di Yogya, Bhisma, dijebloskan dalam tahanan di Jawa, dan sejak akhir 1971 dibuang ke pulau itu, bersama 7000 orang yang dituduh 'komunis' oleh pemerintahan Suharto. Amba, yang tak pernah berhenti mencintainya, datang ke pulau itu dengan ditemani seorang bekas tapol, seorang lelaki Ambon. Ia berhasil menemukan surat-surat Bhisma yang selama bertahun-tahun ditulisnya untuk dia—tetapi tak pernah dikirimkan, hanya disimpan di bawah sebatang pohon. Dari surat-surat yang selama bertahun-tahun disembunyikan ini terungkap bukan saja kenangan kuat Bhisma tentang Amba, tetapi juga tentang pelbagai peristiwa—yang kejam dan yang mengharukan—dalam kehidupan para tahanan di kamp Pulau Buru. Melalui penelitian bertahun-tahun, melalui puluhan interview dan kunjungan ke Pulau Buru, Laksmi menampilkan sejarah Indonesia yang bengis, tetapi justru dengan manusia-manusia yang mencintai. Dalam sepucuk suratnya kepada ayahnya Amba menulis: Adalah Bapak yang menunjukkan bagaimana Centhini sirna pada malam pengantin... Adalah Bapak yang mengajariku untuk tidak mewarnai duniaku hanya Hitam dan Putih, juga untuk tidak serta-merta menilai dan menghakimi. Hitam adalah warna cahaya. Sirna adalah pertanda kelahiran kembali.

Heralded as the most important Brazilian novel of the century so far, this bestseller's unique blend of magic and social realism won it three literary awards and global acclaim'I heard  our grandmother asking what we were doing.'"Say something!" she demanded, threatening to tear out our tongues. Little did she know that one of us was holding her tongue in her hand.'Deep in Brazil's neglected Bahia hinterland, two sisters find an ancient knife beneath their grandmother's bed and, momentarily mystified by its power, decide to taste its metal. The shuddering violence that follows marks their lives and binds them together forever.Heralded as a new masterpiece and the most important Brazilian novel of this century, this fascinating and gripping story about the lives of subsistence farmers in the Brazil's poorest region, three generations after the abolition of slavery in that country is at once fantastic and realist, covering themes of family, spirituality, slavery and its aftermath and political struggle.

From the rubble-strewn streets of U.S.-occupied Baghdad, Hadi--a scavenger and an oddball fixture at a local café--collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. His goal, he claims, is for the government to recognize the parts as people and to give them proper burial. But when the corpse goes missing, a wave of eerie murders sweeps the city, and reports stream in of a horrendous-looking criminal who, though shot, cannot be killed. Hadi soon realizes he's created a monster, one that needs human flesh to survive--first from the guilty, and then from anyone in its path. A prizewinning novel by "Baghdad's new literary star" (The New York Times), Frankenstein in Baghdad captures with white-knuckle horror and black humor the surreal reality of contemporary Iraq.

The future of storytelling is here. Life has thrown Zelu some curveballs over the years, but when she's suddenly dropped from her university job and her latest novel is rejected, all in the middle of her sister's wedding, her life is upended. Disabled, unemployed and from a nosy, high-achieving, judgmental family, she's not sure what comes next. In her hotel room that night, she takes the risk that will define her life - she decides to write a book VERY unlike her others. A science fiction drama about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity. And everything changes. What follows is a tale of love and loss, fame and infamy, of extraordinary events in one world, and another. And as Zelu's life evolves, the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur. Because sometimes a story really does have the power to reshape the world.

Heralded as the most important Brazilian novel of the century so far, this bestseller's unique blend of magic and social realism won it three literary awards and global acclaim'I heard  our grandmother asking what we were doing.'"Say something!" she demanded, threatening to tear out our tongues. Little did she know that one of us was holding her tongue in her hand.'Deep in Brazil's neglected Bahia hinterland, two sisters find an ancient knife beneath their grandmother's bed and, momentarily mystified by its power, decide to taste its metal. The shuddering violence that follows marks their lives and binds them together forever.Heralded as a new masterpiece and the most important Brazilian novel of this century, this fascinating and gripping story about the lives of subsistence farmers in the Brazil's poorest region, three generations after the abolition of slavery in that country is at once fantastic and realist, covering themes of family, spirituality, slavery and its aftermath and political struggle.