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Nov 12, 2026
My Neighbour, The Dictator
Summary
Tari Lang was a young teenage girl living in 1965 Jakarta, when the police showed up at her door. They were there to arrest her father—the first of several arrests following Suharto’s takeover of Indonesia. Before the coup, Tari lived in a vibrant household: an Indonesian father with a job in Sukarno’s government; a British mother; a politically-active group of friends. But as time passes under Suharto, her life comes under more and more pressure—including her own arrest, after she helps set up a safehouse for left-leaning students. All of this is told in Tari’s memoir, My Neighbour, The Dictator: Coming of Age in the Shadow of Indonesia's 1965 Military Coup (Monsoon Books, 2026). Tari joins today to talk about growing up in a country that’s coming under the control of a dictatorship, and how Indonesians think today about 1965. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of My Neighbour, The Dictator. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon.
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Nicholas Gordon
Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon.
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