Each day Titiek would wait for you, Father, in front of the house. I would pay attention to every person that passed by, perhaps it would be you, Father, coming home. In my heart I would say: If Father comes home, I would hug him as tightly as I can, and my longing for him would disappear.

ASTUTI Ananta Toer wrote this moving letter to her father on February 9, 1972. Pramoedya received the letter a month later on Buru Island, where he was a detain