In feudal Java, where both privilege and poverty lived side-by-side, women were little more than chattel. Pramoedya's The Girl From the Coast tells the story of a beautiful young woman from a fishing village who finds herself in an arranged marriage with a wealthy aristocrat. Forced to leave her parents and home behind, she moves to the city to become the "lady" of her husband's house. After she becomes pregnant, she learns that she is merely a "practice wife" who will not simply be discarded but will be separated from the child she carries. Pramoedya's breathtaking literary skill is evident in every word of this book, one of his classic works of fiction made especially poignant because it is based on the life of his own grandmother.