Andrea Hirata

Andrea Hirata Seman Said Harun (born October 24th) is a native-Indonesian author born in Belitung (Belitong), Indonesia. He's known as best-seller novelist by his "Laskar Pelangi" tetralogy and later "Padang Bulan" dwilogy. His first novel, Laskar Pelangi, has been released into film internationally titled "The Rainbow Troops" in 2008, both of them has scored remarkable records in Indonesia's book and movie industry as a biggest hit of all time.

Andrea wrote 'Laskar Pelangi' as a his childhood memoir. Born and raised in Belitong, an island with a long history of tin-mining, Andrea portrayed his childhood story as a story of a marginalized people. Indeed, Belitong is a portrait of a beautiful island which later got impoverished by destructive effects of mining. "Laskar Pelangi" is a story of little Andrea with his childhood friends and teacher struggling for education and better life among the marginalized island and society.

His bittersweet struggling for education has actually made remarkable results. He got Bachelor degree in Economic from Universitas Indonesia, then continued and got his double Mater degree in Economic Telecommunication from Sorbonne University and Sheffeld Halam University, UK.

"Laskar Pelangi" tetralogy is actually the memoir of his life. If Andrea revealed his childhood in "Laskar Pelangi," his adolescence memoir told in the 2nd book titled "Sang Pemimpi (The Dreamer)." Later, he told us about his college life and his backpacking adventures in his 3rd book "Edensor," and finalized the story in the 4th book titled "Maryamah Karpov - Mimpi-mimpi Lintang."

Claimed himself as a science-freak, Andrea is now undoubtedly one of the shooting stars in Indonesian literature. Before his books published and the book-based films were launched, there were no record that a literature book can reach million sales in Indonesia and a national film can withdraw million viewers. By these achievement, Andrea Hirata has made significant contributions to the development of Indonesian literature.

Based on the current news I got from his official site (www.andrea-hirata.com), Andrea now lives in his hometown village, Linggang, Belitong and is pioneering to develop one of his dreams - making Belitong as a literature village and promoting tourism by arranging Laskar Pelangi Festival coming up on November 1st - 30th, 2010.

This a story about Indonesians struggling for education told from the narration of Ikal - a curly little boy living in Belitong Island. Ikal and his surroundings were a portrait of marginalized society, sank in poverty and faced discriminations, include in education accessibility. His school, SD Muhammadiyah, was an oldest elementary-school in Belitong, but at that time threatened by closure as a result from lack student's quota. Heavy poverty had gripped its jaws to Belitong people, made them preferred to labor their underage children for supporting family than pursuing education.

Fortunately, SD Muhammadiyah had Harfan and Muslimah, two idealist teachers giving their best to teach their last pupils, 10 poor kids whom later called as Laskar Pelangi. They struggled together for pursuing their dreams among the limitations they faced, and the journey was so ironically beautiful. Ikal was a portrait of poor tin-miner's son, with average intelligence yet high spirit, whom later could pursue his education higher, while Lintang was a fisherman's son who was naturally genious yet his steps stopped by the claws of poverty.

Beside our two main heros, there are other stories about Harfan, Muslimah, other members of Laskar Pelangi, and Belitong society. All of them gave glimpses to readers about the life of Belitong people in 70's era. Laskar Pelangi is truly an evocative story about marginalized people pursuing dreams and education, revealing in exciting combination of caricature and literary style by Andrea Hirata.

In this book, Ikal was already a teenager and finished his early education. At this age, his family also welcomed Arai, his cousin whose parents had died with no else family remained making him an orphan, to live with them. Ikal and Arai soon became very close, and making a great friendship with Jimbron, a chubby orphan raised by pastor. This was a story about our three young bloods faced multi-facet challenges in passing through their adolescence period and pursuing their education, love, and dreams.

The boys all came from very poor family background. At that time, PN Timah--the monopolist mining company in Belitong--was collapsing, making thousands employers terminated and deepening the poverty level. Both IIkal's parents wanted their youngest son (Ikal) and Arai to keep pursuing higher education, but there was no else higher school in the village, Linggang. So, Ikal and Arai had to go to Magai, 30 kilometres from home, in order to continue their study. In Magai, they met Jimbon, later become their bestfriends. Besides going to school, Ikal, Arai, and Jimbron also worked as porters in regional market, to pay their living cost. In such a young age, our three heros had to face many challenges to reach their dreams.

But they were lucky enough to have Mr.Bailan as their teacher. The idealist good looking teacher who was full of passion in living his profession. The teacher taught his pupils about learning spirit and encouraged them to dare to dream. Bailan's exceptional way of teaching not only succeed in making the learning process became fun experiences, but also making Ikal and Arai set their wildest dreams : flying to Europe and attending Sorbonne University.

The story is about Ikal, Arai, and Jimbron struggling for their life and dreams. Challenged by so many obstacles, would they succeed to reach what they want? Find the answers inside this book.

Continuing the previous story in the 2nd book, now Ikal and Arai were in France. They got scolarship to pursue Master degree in Sorbonne University. In this book, Ikal told us about his and Arai's college years. Meeting various people from around the world, their college years reflects their experiences in living life as global citizens. Ikal told a lot of things here, from challenges and culture shocks they often faced while living abroad to their amazing backpacking trip plying Europe and Africa.

Ikal and Arai's backpacking trips later revealed as a true journey for their identity-search process, as they were like stringing up the past memories to define their future.

In the beginning of the story, Ikal had already got his Mater degree and now coming back into his hometown in Linggang, Belitong. Arai was still remained in France because of his study period's delay. Okay, Ikal had come home, but he's more than an alumnus of one of ultra elite universities in the world. He was single and jobless and still living in parent's home. Plus, he had no idea where his first love, A Ling, was, and feeling frustrated because of reality bites.

Ikal started to fall in love with A Ling since his childhood. When A Ling suddenly disappeared and later reportedly moving to Jakarta when Ikal was on 6th grade, his love never stopped. Ikal continued to trace the woman, which had made him exploring Europe and Africa in his college years. But actually, his love was opposed by his father, because of religion and ethnic differences between the two lovebirds. Ikal was Moslem and native-Malayan coming from strong religious-based family, while A Ling was Hokkian-Chinese and an adherent Confucianism.

Not accepting his father's rejection, Ikal became a rebel. He continued staying in Belitong but kept searching the traces of his lost love. A decision which one again brought him into a tense journey for finding lost love and becoming a real man.

"Padang Bulan" is Ikal's story about his jealousy and misery. As he subsequently found that his first yet forever life, A Ling, had been paired with Zinar, a good-looking Chinese gentleman with irreproachable manner. Ikal himself encountered a quarter-life crisis : had been jobless, still single, and was currently working only as a waiter in his uncle's coffee stall in Belitong.

Don't imagine Ikal's workplace as a Starbuck look-alike, since it is only a worn-out traditional stall locating near Linggang's market serving local people. What else can be proud of a Sorbonne alumnus? I bet Ikal had it all. :)

His desperation for having A Ling back made him asking help from M.Nur, a peculiar detective, to investigate Zinar. Later, Ikal's actions turned him becoming more miserable as both Ikal and M.Nur proved by themselves that Zinar was a true gentleman. In his lowest point, Ikal then decided to go to Jakarta. He determined to get a job there and to spend the rest of his life working as an employee in uniform before retiring later.

"Padang Bulan" also revealed a story about Maryamah--familiarly called as Enong, the first female tin-miner in Belitong. Enong had to live a hard life in her young age since her father death. Zamzami, Enong's father, died in crash-buried incident in tin mining. Her mother then fell sick because of her sadness of losing her husband. As an oldest daughter in family, Enong had to quit her school, working as a traditional miner to support her mother and feed her family.

In "Padang Bulan," we'd been introduced to Maryamah (Enong), the first female-tin miner in Belitong. This book contains a continued-story of Maryamah, Ikal, and M.Nur the detective.

Ikal still worked as a waiter in his uncle's coffee street stall. His friendship with M.Nur gew deeper after the bittersweet ending of investigating Zinar, good-looking Chinese gentleman paired to Ikal's first love.

Destiny then brought Enong, Ikal, and M.Nur together, starting when Enong wanted to pursue her long-life dream : learning English. Their encounter continued later when Enong intended to participate in a local chess tournament which was dominated by men. Enong determined to join the competition to take revenge upon Mustar, his cruel ex-husband. Her participation in the chess tournament then became a touching yet elegant story about a woman upholding her dignity.

For me, Andrea Hirata is a truly talented writer. His writings are like concoctions of diverse ingredients. His particular style is literary yet humorous and easy to perceive, using many interesting allegories to describe his ideas. He has remarkable talent in combining comedy with tragedy, making his writings are satirically hilarious.

Andrea can also be very detailed in developing the plot, keeping its tense and pace, and in depicting the characters uniquely. Reading his books is truly a magical experience, as I can feel so many emotions which ends in a pure satisfaction.

Last checked on his official website, it was said that "Laskar Pelangi" tetralogy is on its way to be translated into English. I personally hope that the translators will do their job well, so the beautiful tastes of Malayan literature which Andrea presented in his book can be portrayed perfectly. And finally, I hope the books can be released internationally soon. :D