This installment covers the life of Minke – the first-person narrator and protagonist, based on Tirto Adhi Soerjo – after his move from Surabaya to Batavia, the capital of Dutch East Indies.

[1][2] This novel – the third installment of the tetralogy – covers the period 1901 to 1912 and is set on the island of Java, Dutch East Indies (today Indonesia).

Minke leaves Surabaya, where he studied in a prestigious high school, to go Betawi (or Batavia), the capital of Dutch East Indies, to continue his education.

[1] Later he also met an Indo man named Jacques Pangemanann who asked Minke to publish his script titled 'Njai Dasima'.

[8] He was imprisoned without trial by the Suharto administration for fourteen years, accused of sympathizing with communists and of being involved in the 1965 coup attempt.

[8][9] Prior to the release of the book he also published a non-fiction account of Tirto Adhi Soerjo, on which the protagonist Minke was based.

[1] A review by Publishers Weekly noted the book's contrast of Minke's "dream of a united, multiethnic", independent Indonesia against the "harsh realities of colonial occupation".

[4] Publishers Weekly said that the book was a "vibrant portrait" of Indonesia's development of nationhood, "rich in human drama and history", and praised the English translator Lane's introduction as being helpful for new readers on the topic.