Fiction in Translation: Intan Paramaditha for Night of a Thousand Hells

"An unforgiving tale of political horror and womanhood... Fascinating." Mariana Enriquez

"Night of a Thousand Hells shows what it means to be a woman, and especially an Asian woman, in this fierce and relentless world. Paramaditha understands every glorious, perilous, bloody, unbearable, and stunning moment that comprises the million different facets of the brilliant entirety that is womanhood." Bora Chung

Intan Paramaditha is an award-winning Indonesian novelist, short-story writer, and scholar. Her story collection Apple and Knife is part of the Vintage Classics Weird Girls series, and her novel The Wandering was longlisted for the Stella Prize and received the English PEN Translates Award. She holds a Ph.D. from New York University and teaches at Macquarie University, Sydney. She is co-founder of the feminist collective Sekolah Pemikiran Perempuan.

We are delighted to be hosting Intan for her latest novel, A Night of a Thousand Hells, a haunting story subversively blending Islamic mysticism, horror, and political reckoning, all seen through the ghostly lens of Indonesian folklore and occult traditions.

THREE SISTERS. A CARETAKER, A TRAVELLER, AND A BRIDE.

Mutiara and Maya's lives are irrevocably altered when their younger sister Annisa straps a bomb to her waist and commits a devastating act.

As they grapple with grief, guilt, and unanswered questions, their search leads them to long-concealed secrets, forsaken family bonds, and the unsettling prophecies of their grandmother, whose enigmatic wisdom has shaped the destinies of women across generations.