In Lighter than I tells Dido Michielsen the gripping story of Isah, a Javanese girl from 1850. She refuses to be married off and chooses her own husband. When she meets a friendly Dutch soldier, she decides that he will be her man. She seduces him and moves in with him, but soon she realizes that different rules apply to Javanese women. This historical novel is a captivating story about courage, love, and cultural barriers and received the Boekhandelsprijs in 2020.