The Edge of Bali theedgeofbali

Synopsis

Back cover text: Twenty years on from its initial release, The Edge of Bali has a renewed pertinence and relevance, exploring as it does, with great prescience, the relationship between Bali and the West, in all its beauty, darkness and hope. For the first time, the novel is accompanied by the author’s non-fiction writings on Bali.

Three people travel to Bali for very different reasons.Marla is well read in Bali’s culture; she distrusts false ideologies, orientalism and tourism. To her surprise she finds the echoes of a golden age and a passionate lover. Nelson, a young woman from Sydney returns in the hope of reuniting with her Balinese boyfriend, but encounters the unexpected. Tyler, a New Yorker searching for a lost friend, enters a world of mystery and intrigue.

All three are on the edge, unsure of whether they should stay in Bali any longer, but are increasingly drawn into the heart of this complex and alluring island. Through subtle storytelling and compelling characters, Inez Baranay unravels the exotic, ways of knowing and the culture of tourism, in one of the world’s favourite destinations.

In This Novel

“Twenty years on from its initial release, The Edge of Bali has a renewed pertinence and relevance, exploring as it does, with great prescience, the relationship between Bali and the West, in all its beauty, darkness and hope.  … For the first time, the novel is accompanied by the author’s non-fiction writings on Bali.

Three people travel to Bali for very different reasons. Marla is well read in Bali’s culture; she distrusts false ideologies, orientalism and tourism. To her surprise she finds the echoes of a golden age and a passionate lover. Nelson, a young woman from Sydney returns in the hope of reuniting with her Balinese boyfriend, but encounters the unexpected. Tyler, a New Yorker searching for a lost friend, enters a world of mystery and intrigue. All three are on the edge, unsure of whether they should stay in Bali any longer, but are increasingly drawn into the heart of this complex and alluring island. Through subtle storytelling and compelling characters, Inez Baranay unravels the exotic, ways of knowing and the culture of tourism, in one of the world’s favourite destinations.

http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/09/21/the-edge-of-bali-by-inez-baranay/

 

Published

The Edge of Bali and other writings: Published by Transit Lounge in 2012

The Edge of Bali: Published by A&R Imprint, 1992. This edition Out Of Print.

ISBN

The Edge of Bali and other writings: ISBN 9781921924194

The Edge of Bali: ISBN 0 207 168997

Buy This Book

The Edge of Bali and other writings: Available at good bookshops and from the publisher Transit Lounge

New

The Edge of Bali and other writings

Author’s Introduction to the new edition   Read

 




Reviews


The Edge of Bali


Inez Baranay’s The Edge of Bali is made up of three related short stories about three unrelated tourists - Nelson, Marla and Tyler… All three are searching, all unsure of whether they should really be in Bali or where they’ll go next: three examples of the mass of lemming-like lost souls who flock to the third world to look for meaning, religion, spirit, beauty - all the things that amid our wealth and technology of the modern world, we have lost. …This is a book of full of contemporary dilemmas, clearly and keenly expressed by Baranay’s’ characters. … The book is really about the phenomenon of tourism. … The questions raised by the book are fascinating and often unanswerable.

-Australian Book Review, October 1992

....Read More

The Edge of Bali


Nelson, a post-punk [Sydney] girl has returned to Kuta in the hope of reuniting with her Balinese boyfriend but finding their love was not really of the ‘true’ variety gets stuck into some desperate partying… Marla, a successful business woman goes to Bali well read in its culture: she distrusts “false ideologies: colonialism, orientalism, and tourism” but finds tranquillity and a handsome Balinese lover. Tyler, and American searching for a lost friend, is strangely mesmerised, perhaps poisoned by various Balinese magics, to find himself involved in tourist anti-tourist movement. …Baranay writes evocatively of the Bali landscape, raising serious questions within vivid description. New myths jostle with the old.

-The Sydney Morning Herald

....Read More