Jalan Jalan

Winner of the Guardian Self-published Book of the Month.
Newbie travels to Indonesia to forget his past life. His girlfriend has died and he wants no more painful reminders, no more memories, no more missing her. The trouble is, she's followed him there. Club-land bosses, prostitutes, shaman, damaged expats, they all help with his reinvention.
The local mushrooms, jungle grass, and the dead girlfriend who turns up when she pleases, all push him to the edge of madness. A story of travel, loss, split personalities and ghosts. All mixed in with a little shaman magic, time-bending, and the best coffee in the world.
This story of a quest for salvation in an exotic foreign land will appeal to fans of Alex Garland's The Beach, Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love and Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano. The title of the book comes from the Indonesian phrase jalan jalan ("walk walk") which one of the characters describes as: "Just fu$&ing walking man. Out for a stroll." To Newbie, whose real name is never revealed until the book's final page, the phrase aptly sums up the emotional detachment he seeks. Yet despite himself, he cannot help being transformed by his new experiences.

"Raw, confrontational and aimed directly at anyone who has decided to take a hike from life, hide out for a while and reinvent who you are in another culture, it lays bare the vulnerability of the human psyche…Not for the fainthearted, this will take you on a journey which will be hard to forget, will hit deep and will, providing you enjoy this hard hitting style of writing, keep you entertained to the last page as you struggle, with Newbie, to discover just what life is really all about." ―Blue Wolf Reviews


About The Author:
Mike Stoner has spent time in Asia and Eastern Europe. As a mature student he graduated with a distinction in the MA in Creative Writing from the University of Kent. He loves writing and intends to do an awful lot more. View Less