In the Small Hours of the Night, a collection of 24 Sundanese short stories, is the first collection of its kind ever to be translated into English. The stories deal with a variety of subjects, ranging from everyday-politics where corruption is rife to stories of village life and the trials faced by villagers forced to confront the waves of modernization. There are also stories which deal with the significant historical events of the last seventy years and finally-as one might expect, since the Sundanese are known for the frankness with which they describe sexual attraction-there are also stories of love. Authors whose work may be found in this collection include Aan Merdéka Permana, Absurditas Malka, Dadan Wahyudin, Déni A. Fajar, Déni A. Héndarsyah, Érwin Wahyudi, Fitria Puji Lestari, Héna Sumarni, Lugiena Dé, Mamat Sasmita, Mulyana Surya Atmaja, Nina Rahayu Nadéa, Usép Romli H.M., and Yus R. Ismail. C.W. (Bill) Watson, the editor and translator of this collection, retired in 2008 from the University of Kent in the U.K., where he taught in the School of Anthropology, and now teaches in the School of Business and Management at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).
