Pabrik kepunyaan Tirtoatmojo yang didirikan di tanah bekas perkampungan itu terbakar. Bekas penghuni kampung dipindahkan ke dekat kompleks pelacuran dengan janji diberi saham. Mereka juga ditampung sebagai buruh di pabrik itu. Ketika keadaan pabrik makin maju, kesejahteraan para buruh justru diabaikan. Janji pembagian saham tidak pernah tampak wujudnya. Para buruh protes menuntut hak mereka. Aksi itu menimbulkan kericuhan antara buruh dan kaki tangan pemilik pabrik. Salah satu dari mereka berhasil menyelinap ke dalam gudang dan menaburkan bensin di sana. Ia menyulutnya dan api dengan cepat merambat, membakar keseluruhan pabrik. Pabrik menceritakan perlawanan orang-orang kecil yang terpinggirkan dan berhadapan dengan kekuasaan. Ditulis pada tahun enam puluhan, tema yang diangkatnya justru semakin tajam hari ini.
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).
