February 2026: The book is here!!
'Frayed Edges of a Kampong' has become a reality. A long-cherished dream has come true. Writing the book was an adventure that began long before the first word hit the page. My love for Indonesia began when the first Indonesian children came to class in primary school. My curiosity was piqued. In secondary school, I read Oeroeg by Hella S. Haasse, and that only fueled my curiosity. What exactly were the Dutch like in the then Dutch East Indies? Who was Oeroeg? How did he live, what did the kampong where he lived look like, what did he believe in, what were his motivations? We didn't learn any of this in school, and my search through literature didn't yield what I was looking for. Now, half a lifetime and 500 books later, I have a pretty good idea of ​​what it must have been like for the indigenous people back then. Oeroeg became Atoeng, the little boy my book was supposed to be about. But as I wrote, I noticed Atoeng wasn't gaining any flesh on his bones. There was another, more urgent story that needed to be told: the story of Asmina, his mother.
That became "Frayed Edges of a Kampong," part 1 of "The Kampong Chronicles." Atoeng gets his turn in part 2, and there will certainly be a part 3 as well. And who knows what else will come... 

The book is written in Dutch. Hopefully an English version will appear in due time.