Written in the early 1960s while the author was under arrest by Indonesian authorities, this vivid dissection of social and political life in Jakarta, Indonesia reveals the dark currents of poverty, corruption and vice which course beneath the surface of one of the great cities of the Third World. The tale that unfolds has universal application as it describes the the forces that determine the lives of the rich and poor, politicians and criminals, intellectuals and simple rural immigrants alike as they struggle for survival. Twilight in Jakarta was the first Indonesian novel to be translated into English, by Claire Holt, and Lubis remains one of the country's most well-known writers.