Publication Date: Jan 2020
RRP: $29.95
ISBN: 9781925835564
Format: Paperback
Size: 153mm x 234mm
Pages: 416
Category: Herb Feith Translation Series

Buru Island

A Prison Memoir

Hersri Setiawan and Jennifer Lindsay

Also available as an ebook from your favourite retailer.


Buru Island was the site of Indonesia’s most remote and infamous prison camp. In the wake of the 1965 repression of the political Left, between 1969 and 1979 approximately 12,000 men were held on Buru without formal charge or trial. During their detention prisoners suffered torture, forced labour and malnourishment, as well as social isolation.

This book is an edited translation of the Indonesian language memoir by the writer Hersri Setiawan (b.1936) who was detained for nine years, including seven on Buru Island: as a young writer filled with hope and optimism for Indonesia’s future he had joined the left-wing cultural organisation Lekra (Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat, Institute of People’s Culture). Setiawan shares an intimate account of his life story leading up to and during his detention. He brings into stark light the horrors of the period after 1965, which included disappearances, murder, torture, betrayal and loss, and his own capture and incarceration on Buru Island.

This is a moving and at times harrowing account of human cruelty and, at the same time, a story of survival and hope.


Hersri Setiawan

Hersri Setiawan (1936) is a writer, journalist and translator. He studied in Yogyakarta at Gadjah Mada University and the Academy of Film and Dramatic Arts. As a student he became active in the arts and culture and in 1958 joined the...
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Jennifer Lindsay

Jennifer Lindsay, an honorary Associate Professor in the School of Culture, History and Language at ANU, has lived in Indonesia on and off for some thirty years. She now spends most of her time translating and divides her time between...
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