Kubah

It follows a poor man named Karman who becomes a member of the Indonesian Communist Party, only to find himself a victim of the ongoing political struggles in 1950s Indonesia. After the Party’s destruction he spends twelve years as a prisoner at Burubefore returning to his hometown and becoming a devout Muslim.

Tohari’s second novel, Kubah was written in two months and based on the events surrounding the Communist Party and the 30 September Movement coup in 1965. Published in 1980 by Pustaka Jaya, Kubah came at a time when literary works with similar themes – the victimisation of Communist Party members – were scarce. The novel has also been characterised as dawah (Islamic preaching). Reception of Kubah was mostly mixed; critics praised the novel for its subject matter and criticised it for its predictability. It received a literary award in 1981, and in 1986 it was translated into Japanese.