Sebelas Patriot by Andrea Hirata

Summary
Ikal found an old picture of a man, wore football custome, held shinning champion cup, but looked so sad. He is curious, who he is, why he looks so devastated after winning a game? He asked her mother, but she only told him to put the picture, back to where it belong. Ikal kept it silently, and determined to found out the story of the man in the picture.

Who would have thought that the picture brought old story, which makes Ikal realize that before his father become a poor,ordinary tin miner, he was a hero. A sad story but finally gives Ikal huge spirit to continue his father's struggle to achieve a purpose. Make the world knows Indonesia is here. Make everyone's proud to be an Indonesian. Will he succeed?

Andrea Hirata comes again with his novel, called Sebelas Patriot. While everyone is issuing if Ikal's character is real or not, he still use first perspective in this novel. It doesn't bother me, I haven't got bored with Ikal anyway.
What makes me interested, this novel contains about nasionalism spirit, a thing that forgotten this day. Ikal's story simply tells us how a picture could bring a passion to love his country more. He loves Indonesia with his own way, continuing his father's journey,by playing football. He dreams high, hope someday he could be national player, and defend national team in world championship.

Some part of this stories make me shudder. There's a time that I realize how many times I complain about this country, but have no action about it. The other parts make me sad, remember our football institution's chaos. When some people tries to achieve the best, and make Indonesia proud, some people screw it, staining it with money and politic.

After all, it's a good book. Hopefully you can gain some goodness from this book. And by the way, it comes with a CD, contain songs, written by Andrea Hirata himself. I haven't tried it, but it's said that the songs complete the story. You feel real deal!