Bila Malam Bertambah Malam mengisahkan kesetiaan untuk memelihara cinta yang berbenturan dengan keangkuhan tatanan sosial yang membeda-bedakan manusia. Kisahnya berlangsung di Tabanan, Bali, di sekitar kehidupan Gusti Biang, bangsawan tua sisa-sisa feodalisme Bali. Gusti Biang masih ingin mempertahankan tatanan lama yang menjerat manusia berdasarkan kasta. Tapi putranya, Ratu Ngurah, jatuh cinta kepada Nyoman Niti, bedinde Gusti Biang yang menyadari kemerdekaannya sebagai pribadi. Guncangan pun tak terhindarkan akibat perbenturan antara nilai-nilai lama yang telah melapuk dan nilai-nilai baru yang hendak mekar. Dan kuncinya ada di tangan Wayan, veteran perang kemerdekaan dan kawan seperjuangan I Gusti Ngurah Rai yang gugur dalam Perang Puputan, yang selama bertahun-tahun setia mengabdi pada keluarga Gusti Biang. Siapakah Ratu Ngurah sebenarnya? Sejauh mana ia dan ibunya bisa mengakui kenyataan yang dibeberkan Wayan?
Author
Putu Wijaya, whose real name is I Gusti Ngurah Putu Wijaya, is an Indonesian author who was born in Bali on 11 April 1944. He was the youngest of eight siblings (three of them from a different father). He lived in a large housing complex with around 200 people who were all members of the same extended family, and were accustomed to reading. His father, I Gusti Ngurah Raka, was hoping for Putu to become a doctor, but Puti was weak in the natural sciences. He liked history, language and geography. Putu Wijaya has already written around 30 novels, 40 dramas, about a hundred short stories, and thousands of essays, free articles and drama criticisms. He has also produced film and soap-opera scripts. He led the Teater Mandiri theatre since 1971, and has received numerous prices for literary works and soap-opera scripts. He's short stories often appear in the columns of the daily newspapers Kompas and Sinar Harapan. His novels are often published in the magazines Kartini, Femina and Horison. As a script writer, he has two times won the Citra prize at the Indonesian Film Festival, for the movies Perawan Desa (1980) and Kembang Kertas (1985).
