Ths is a wonderfully told tale of mystery and magic realism, while doubling as a tightly bound reflction on the traumas of war. Set during the bloody struggle for independence from the Dutch, Goenawan compellingly maps out the fears, suspicions, betrayals, hope, tragedy and timelessness of a small Javanese village where some are compelled to fiht as guerillas while others simply choose to survive as best they can. However, there is one special woman who creates batiks and, in her dreams, she fles of with three birds into her dreamworld which holds more truths and clarity than the wounded, blurred realm that she inhabits here on earth.
—Terence Ward, author of Searching for Hassan, Th Guardian of Mercy, and Th Wahhabi Code
