Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash

Ajo Kawir is one of the toughest fighters in the Javanese underworld, his fearlessness matched only by his unquenchable thirst for brawling. But the young thug is driven by a painful secret: he is impotent. When he finally meets his match in the shape of the fearsome, beautiful bodyguard Iteung, Ajo is left bruised, battered, and overjoyed. He has fallen in love. But will he ever be able to make Iteung happy if he can’t get it up?[4]

• Ajo Kawir, a fearless thug who suffers from impotency.
• Iteung, a tough bodyguard with whom Ajo Kawir falls in love.
• Tokek (Gecko in the English version), Ajo Kawir's best friend.

In a review for The Atlantic, Jane Yong Kim called the novel "a surreal, poignant account of a teen attempting to become a man."[5] Comparing it to Kurniawan's previous work Man Tiger, Kim wrote "In Man Tiger, Kurniawan masterfully played with time to tell a complicated family story from multiple sides. The point of that novel, as with Vengeance, is to show the insidious, trickle-down effects of men who wreak havoc with little consideration for those around them. Both works illustrate these knots of community, where propriety and rage and survival coexist, with a surprising amount of compassion—and illuminate the pain and learning of the next generation with tremendous grace."[5]

Writing for Asian Review of Books, Tim Hannigan called Kurniawan "the Quentin Tarantino of Indonesian literature" for his "gleeful references to pulp fiction, lashings of stylized violence, and an array of characters and scenarios that far surpass the tropes and clichés which inspire them."[6]

A film adaptation directed by Edwin was announced in 2016 with Kurniawan co-writing the screenplay with Edwin.[9] Marthino Lio was cast as Ajo Kawir while Singer-songwriter Sal Priadi makes his film debut as Tokek.[9] Citra Award-nominated actress Ladya Cheryl plays Iteung.[9]