Olenka

A new English translation of an existential tale of obsession by Indonesia’s celebrated writer of absurdist realism

A Penguin Classic

In Bloomington, Indiana, Fanton Drummond’s life changes when he encounters Olenka Danton in an elevator. Infatuated at first sight, Fanton begins to see Olenka everywhere, from bus stops and parks to the imagined settings of his mind’s eye. Soon they begin an affair, and Fanton steps deeper into Olenka’s mysterious world. But one day, Olenka vanishes. Fanton’s subsequent search for Olenka becomes an existential journey filled with tragicomic twists and introspective musings on the meaning of life, all through which Fanton realizes that he knows little about Olenka, and even less about himself.

With prose characteristic of Albert Camus by way of David Lynch, Budi Darma foregrounds the absurd monotony of everyday life—and the meaninglessness it masks. Newly translated into English by PEN Translation Prize winner Tiffany Tsao, the novel, layered with literary and visual references, blurs realism and absurdism, fact and fiction, tragic and comic, to probe the human condition and pinpoint our common plight.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.