An entertaining and thought-provoking portrait of Indonesia: a rich, dynamic, and often maddening nation awash with contradictions.

Jakarta tweets more than any other city on earth, but 80 million Indonesians live without electricity and many of its communities still share in ritual sacrifices. Declaring independence in 1945, Indonesia said it would “work out the details of the transfer of power etc. as soon as possible.” With over 300 ethnic groups spread across 13,500 islands, the world’s fourth most populous nation has been working on that “etc.” ever since. Bewitched by Indonesia for twenty-five years, Elizabeth Pisani recently traveled 26,000 miles around the archipelago in search of the links that bind this impossibly disparate nation. Fearless and funny, Pisani shares her deck space with pigs and cows, bunks down in a sulfurous volcano, and takes tea with a corpse. Along the way, she observes Big Men with child brides, debates corruption and cannibalism, and ponders “sticky” traditions that cannot be erased. 25 illustrations

伊莉莎白·皮薩尼（Elizabeth Pisani），通曉印尼語、法語等多國語言，擁有中國古文、醫療人口學、傳染流行病學等學位，1988至1991年間擔任路透新聞社和《經濟學人》雜誌駐印尼特派記者，2001至2005年以流行病學傢身份與印尼衛生部共事，2011至2012年赴印尼群島遊曆，現居倫敦。另著有《妓女的智慧:官僚、妓院與艾滋事業》。