Labibah Qotrunnada

Ada banyak hal yang mebuat buku karya Ahmad Tohari ini bisa bertahan selama lebih dari 40 tahun. Bahkan hingga saat ini pun masih sangat relevan untuk dibaca. Bahkan menurutku wajib. Memang cerita yang disuguhkan sangat tidak biasa. Tentang Srintil yang dinobatkan sebagai ronggeng baru di Dukuh Paruk. Dengan ronggeng, pedukuhan kecil itu merasa bangga karena berhasil menemukan jati dirinya kembali meskipun di balik itu ia dilanda kemiskinan dan kebodohan. Srintil adalah tokoh yang sangat dipuja.

I did not have to stare at the bookshelf long on my last visit to the bookstore. My eyes immediately fell on a bright yellow cover with sharp glancing eyes as if there was a big secret that she was afraid to reveal. It was the Yellowface, a book by Rebecca F Kuang. And finally, my husband grabbed that book for my birthday present. I didn’t expect that this is a fiction book.

This is a historical fiction book. Set in The Victorian Era, this book is about the life of Robin Swift, an Asiatic Cholera survivor from Canton, China. He was an orphan and guarded by an Oxford Professor, Professor Lovell. He sent him to the prestigious life as a student at Oxford University at The Royal Institute of Translation or Babel. He was trained as a translator with three other students from his cohort, Ramy, Victoire, and Letty, and they became a family.