Fall Baby

Fall Baby tells the story of two women—Srikandi (Siri) and Dara, one a globetrotting visual artist, the other a human right’s activist. Siri is the illegitimate daughter of Amba and Bhisma, the protagonists of Laksmi Pamuntjak’s award-winning first novel, Amba/The Question of Red (Winner of Germany’s LiBeraturpreis 2016, translated into several languages).  Dara is Siri’s former best friend.

After living in numerous art capitals of the world—London, Madrid, New York—Siri decides to settle in Berlin, where she hopes to evade her dark past and be spiritually closer to the history of her two late fathers. Just when she has begun to rearrange her life as an international visual artist in artistically vibrant Berlin, an unexpected news summons her back to Jakarta.

There, not only does she have to confront her relationship with her mother, Amba; her former best friend, Dara; and her stepdaughter, Amalia and give new meaning to each relationship; she also has to navigate the complex interweaving of art, religion, politics and history.

Fall Baby is not just about the intricacies of art, religion, politics and history in a troubled Indonesia, but also about family, identity, motherhood, and the sisterhood of women.

In 2020, Fall Baby won the Singapore Book Award for Best Literary Work.