In this post I'll introduce Mr. Hirata - one of the famous and talented Indonesian author. Mr. Hirata was born on October 24th 1982 in Gantung, Belitung (Indonesia) . His name is Andrea Hirata Seman Said Aaron. While he was young his parents had changed his name 7 times then finally they put Andrea Hirata as his name.
"Andrea is taken from the name of a woman who is determined to kill himself if his favorite singer, Elvis Presleydoes not reply to the letter," said Andrea.
He was born in a far away and poor village. From that surrounding motivated himself to have dreams and become dreamer. We can see his novels the Rainbow Troops Quartet tells about his life. The Rainbow Troops (Laskar Pelangi) is all about his childhood. His friends, his lovely teacher- Bu Muslimah, his village and all the struggle he dealt with.
He graduated from University of Indoensia (Universitas Indonesia) with a degree in economics. After that he continued master's degree with European Union's scholarship in University of Paris then Sheffield Hallam University (UK). Months ago, exactly in July 2015 he granted an Honorary Doctor of Letters (Hon DLitt) from University of Warwick (UK).
As he wrote on his blog,
"My dearest novel readers, It’s truly an honor for me to imagine that my first novel The Rainbow Troops is in your hands. Along the reading journey, I hope you enjoy the story from my home village, on the very small island of Belitong, in the middle of nowhere, so small in fact, that most of the time it doesn’t even appear on the map. My story is the story of forgotten people and the voice of the voiceless. Anyway, you might be interested in the beauty of childhood, in the neglected 15 years old teacher and her last ten students fighting for education, dignity and invincible enemies, in their purest and innocent dreams and in the bittersweet first love. Yours sincerely Andrea Hirata"
Now his book, The Rainbow Troops had translated into several languages. I even have it and read the Turkish one in my hand. The other sequels; The Dreamers (Sang Pemimpi), Edensor, Maryamah Karpov were also translated into other languages. His novels had also been picked up by Penguin Books and Random House.Hirata was the first Indonesian writer to be published with FSG. They also filmed his novels, directed by famous Indonesian directors Riri Riza and Mira Lesmana. Sadly the 4th novel of The Rainbow Troops Quartet, Maryamah Karpov hasn't in Cinema yet.
"People like us would die, if we don't have a dream"
(Arai, The Rainbow Troops)
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