Letters from a young boy from Indonesia provide an overview of that country and its customs. Meet Muhammad. He's eight years old and lives in the village of Biting, in Indonesia. Muhammad likes arm wrestling and playing soccer with his friends. Find out what it's like to live in Indonesia by reading Muhammad's letters. He'll introduce you to his family, take you to his school, and show you how to make coconut rice following his mother's recipe.

"An entertaining and thought-provoking portrait of Indonesia: a rich, dynamic, and often maddening nation awash with contradictions. Jakarta tweets more than any other city on earth, but 80 million Indonesians live without electricity and many of its communities still share in ritual sacrifices. Declaring independence in 1945, Indonesia said it would 'work out the details of the transfer of power etc. as soon as possible.' With over 300 ethnic groups spread across 13,500 islands, the world's fourth most populous nation has been working on that 'etc.' ever since. Bewitched by Indonesia for twenty-five years, Elizabeth Pisani recently traveled 26,000 miles around the archipelago in search of the links that bind this impossibly disparate nation. Fearless and funny, Pisani shares her deck space with pigs and cows, bunks down in a sulfurous volcano, and takes tea with a corpse. Along the way, she observes Big Men with child brides, debates corruption and cannibalism, and ponders 'sticky' traditions that cannot be erased"--Provided by publisher.

A journalist draws on his immersive visits to the remote Indonesian island of the Lamalerans, the world's last subsistence whalers, to profile their way of life and illuminate how their indigenous culture is succumbing to the modern world.