pramoedya had done research for the books before he was sent to the buru prison camp. when he was arrested his library was burned and much of his collection and early writings were lost. on the prison colony island of buru he was not permitted even to have a pencil. pramoedya thought that he would ever be able to write the novels on paper. he told the stories of the novels to his fellow prisoners. other prisoners listened to the stories then helped him. they did extra labor so that pramoedya did not have to work as much. so finally he was able to write the novels down. the final books took their name, "buru quartet," from the prison where he created them. they have been collected and published in english. maxwell lane translated them. they are also in many other languages. by 2005, they had been published in 33 languages (biwp). many people outside of indonesia though that these were excellent books. they won many awards. but the indonesian government banned their publication in indonesia. so one of indonesia's most famous literary works was almost impossible to find the country's people whose history it addressed. indonesians abroad scanned copies and shared them on the internet with people inside the country.