Mataram: A Novel of Love, Faith and Power in Early Java

Join eminent historian Tony Reid for a discussion about his first historical novel.

Seventeenth-century Java is in turmoil between its Hindu-Buddhist past and its Muslim future, while pepper draws Europe’s quarrelling spice-hungry traders to its shores. Thomas Hodges of the East India Company seizes a chance at glory by being the first to venture ashore at the pepper port of Banten in 1608. Will he unlock the mysterious riches of Java for the English, or die forgotten with a Javanese kris or Portuguese poignard between his ribs? The key may lie with his captivating interpreter Sri, under whose spell he falls.

"Romance, intrigue, warfare, adventure – Mataram has all the ingredients necessary to bring 17th-century Java to life.”

Prof. Barbara Andaya, University of Hawai’i

About the speakers

Tony Reid is better known as Professor Anthony Reid, author of ten historical works on Southeast Asia, including the much-read and translated Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, c. 1450 – 1680. He has taught Southeast Asian history at universities in the US (Yale, UCLA, Hawaii) and Australia (ANU) as well as Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. He now lives in Canberra. This is his first work of fiction.

Adrian Vickers is Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at Sydney University, cultural historian and author of Bali: A Paradise Created (2012), A History of Modern Indonesia (2013) and many other interpretive works.

This event is co-hosted by SSEAC, the Department of Indonesian Studies at USyd, and the Australia Indnesia Youth Association NSW.