Erni Salleh

Paperback

9789814901123

Finalist of the Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2020

“A well-written, a kind of Southeast Asian Da Vinci Code-type mystery with a degree of scholarly detail all through the narrative.”

Professor Rajeev S. Patke, Director of the Division of Humanities at Yale-NUS College

After missing her fathers funeral, Irin Omar finds her orderly librarian life with the Borobudur restoration project turned upside down as she inherits a safe deposit box containing an unknown item as part of her fathers will. Chasing answers across Asia and Europe, her historical knowledge and love for her father persists as she tries to uncover some of the archipelagos biggest hidden secrets, while discovering a few familial skeletons of her own.

Erni Salleh completed her Masters in Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, where she first got interested in colonial maps, art, religion and ancient kingdoms of the region. A librarian by profession and a self-professed antiques aficionado, she travels the region collecting bits of the pastfrom eighth century Buddha statues in Burma to generations-old kerises in a remote village in Yogyakarta. When shes not writing, Erni continues telling stories in her capacity as a librarian, be it to a room full of toddlers and parents, or storyboarding a puzzle adventure book for tweens. She currently manages the National Library Boards Mobile Library Services, affectionately known as MOLLY. The Java Enigma is her first novel.