He was banned from writing during his imprisonment on the island of Buru but still managed to compose - orally - his best-known series of work to date, the Buru Quartet, a series of four historical fiction novels chronicling the development of Indonesian nationalism and based in part on his own experiences growing up. The English titles of the books in the tetralogy are "This Earth of Mankind", "Child of All Nations", "Footsteps", and "House of Glass". The main character of the series, Minke, a Javanese minor royal, was based in part on an Indonesian journalist active in the nationalist movement, Tirto Adhi Surjo.