Novel
Rontok
Not translated into English
Arena Wati · 1980
Synopsis
Umar and Tijah are the children of refugees from the Sulu archipelago, who arrived in Sabah without parents and deprived of everything. Left to the street, they struggle every day to survive, looking after each other, among other young refugees. The narrative follows their life as street children in Sabah, now part of Malaysia.
Context
The novel appeared in 1980, one of three that the author published at the turn of the decade. He makes of it a story of survival that calls for attention and compassion, and gives up in it the stream of consciousness and the interior monologue used in an earlier novel, for a direct narrative with ordinary characters. The book also depicts the political and economic situation of Sabah after its entry into Malaysia.
Who it is for
A novel in Malay of a little over two hundred pages, simple to read but gruelling; it exists neither in French nor in English.
Prizes and reception
An employee of the language institute saw in it, in 2024, the origin of her taste for literature; some readers find it too harsh for school.
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