Toer : All That is Gone

Blora, Java

In this 1952 collection of early short stories, written soon after independence, the first story, which gives its title to the entire collection, is the most charming.  It's a young man's nostalgic reminiscence of his early childhood in Blora- abruptly swept away by a decade of war and chaos.

It's also the only story that gives any hint of the great novels that will be published thirty years later.

The stories that follow are grim and depressing - until the final story which plays with the author's identity as a  professional writer.