He is famous for his novel Sitti Nurbaya, which tells the story of a teenage girl who was forced to marry a man much older than herself to recompense his father's debt.

Against his family's wishes, Marah Roesli married a Sundanese woman born in Bogor in 1911, and they had three children, two boys and one girl.

Unlike Taufik Ismail and Asrul Sani, who both completely left their practices as veterinarians to become authors, Marah Roesli kept working in that profession until he retired in 1952 with the title of Head Veterinary.

Marah Roesli had higher education, and was able to access many books from the Western tradition, especially the Modernism literature prevalent at the time.

His works convey the need to move away from the strong traditional values, especially of the Minangkabau people's and embrace the development of the period, and.