Creative expression is many an academic's dream, but few manage to pull it off. Reid has done this wonderfully with his novel set in early 17th century Java.

– Jennifer Lindsay, Mekong Review

Romance, intrigue, warfare, adventure– Mataram has all the ingredients necessary to bring seventeenth-century Java to life. A young Englishman's efforts to gain cultural acceptance of his marriage to a well-born Javanese woman illuminate the religious and cultural conflicts of this period as competing groups, including Europeans, sought to gain economic and religious advantage. Written by an eminent historian, Mataram will be welcomed by all those who see historical fiction as a means of illuminating the past.

– Barbara Andaya, University of Hawaii

Mataram should be read by everybody who wants to understand Indonesia today in the context of a great history. It will fascinate anyone who is interested in problems of cultural pluralism, commercial globalisation, the issue of mixed marriage, Kejawen [Javanese religion], religious syncretism, political-religious entanglement, feminism and the history of European modernity that brought pistols, spectacles, maps and telescopes to Java. But I am sure that Mataram will also not disappoint those who don't care about all these weighty social problems and only want to enjoy the love story of two people of very different backgrounds.

– Ariel Heryanto, Herb Feith Professor for the Study of Indonesia, Monash University, Australia, Tirto Indonesia