Staff Pick
Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee is a meaty allegory written during the time of apartheid in South Africa. Although quite short, ugly truths of oppression fill the novel and unfortunately reveal similarities between the oppression of apartheid in South Africa and the systemic racism in America. Perhaps the novel's brevity is why it is read 40 years after its initial publication, and I can think of no better time to (re)examine its message than during this present reckoning. Recommended By Alex Y., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
For decades the Magistrate has been a loyal servant of the Empire, running the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement and ignoring the impending war with the barbarians. When interrogation experts arrive, however, he witnesses the Empire's cruel and unjust treatment of prisoners of war. Jolted into sympathy for their victims, he commits a quixotic act of rebellion that brands him an enemy of the state.
J. M. Coetzee's prize-winning novel is a startling allegory of the war between opressor and opressed. The Magistrate is not simply a man living through a crisis of conscience in an obscure place in remote times; his situation is that of all men living in unbearable complicity with regimes that ignore justice and decency.
Review
"[A] distinguished piece of fiction....[Its] power of historical immediacy gives the novel its thrust, its larger and, if you wish, 'universal' value." The New York Times
Review
"I have known few authors who can evoke such a wilderness in the heart of man. He is an artist of a weight and depth that put him beyond ordinary comparisons....Coetzee knows the elusive terror of Kafka." Bernard Levin, Sunday Times (London)
Review
"The novel moves between claustrophobic enclosures and arid, exquisitely rendered open spaces that reveal treacherous trap-doors....The book keeps us on edge, uneasy." Walter Clemons, Newsweek
Review
"The book makes for compelling reading, largely due to the successful use of the present tense throughout and the vivid presentation of unfolding events." World Literature Today
Synopsis
J.M. Coetzee's latest novel, The Schooldays of Jesus, will soon be available from Viking. Mark Rylance (
Wolf Hall,
Bridge of Spies), Ciro Guerra and producer Michael Fitzgerald are teaming up to to bring J.M. Coetzee's
Waiting for the Barbarians to the big screen.
Deadline reported that Fitzgerald (
Wise Blood,
The Pledge) "is the one who pulled the prestigious project together with Rylance and Guerra."
For decades the Magistrate has been a loyal servant of the Empire, running the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement and ignoring the impending war with the barbarians. When interrogation experts arrive, however, he witnesses the Empire's cruel and unjust treatment of prisoners of war. Jolted into sympathy for their victims, he commits a quixotic act of rebellion that brands him an enemy of the state.
J. M. Coetzee's prize-winning novel is a startling allegory of the war between opressor and opressed. The Magistrate is not simply a man living through a crisis of conscience in an obscure place in remote times; his situation is that of all men living in unbearable complicity with regimes that ignore justice and decency.
"
Synopsis
A modern classic by Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee.
J.M. Coetzee's latest novel, The Schooldays of Jesus, will soon be available from Viking. For decades the Magistrate has been a loyal servant of the Empire, running the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement and ignoring the impending war with the barbarians. When interrogation experts arrive, however, he witnesses the Empire's cruel and unjust treatment of prisoners of war. Jolted into sympathy for their victims, he commits a quixotic act of rebellion that brands him an enemy of the state.
J. M. Coetzee's prize-winning novel is a startling allegory of the war between opressor and opressed. The Magistrate is not simply a man living through a crisis of conscience in an obscure place in remote times; his situation is that of all men living in unbearable complicity with regimes that ignore justice and decency.
Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall, Bridge of Spies), Ciro Guerra and producer Michael Fitzgerald are teaming up to to bring J.M. Coetzee'sWaiting for the Barbariansto the big screen.
"
Synopsis
A modern classic by Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee.
His latest novel, The Schooldays of Jesus, is now available from Viking. Late Essays: 2006-2016 will be available January 2018. For decades the Magistrate has been a loyal servant of the Empire, running the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement and ignoring the impending war with the barbarians. When interrogation experts arrive, however, he witnesses the Empire's cruel and unjust treatment of prisoners of war. Jolted into sympathy for their victims, he commits a quixotic act of rebellion that brands him an enemy of the state.
J. M. Coetzee's prize-winning novel is a startling allegory of the war between opressor and opressed. The Magistrate is not simply a man living through a crisis of conscience in an obscure place in remote times; his situation is that of all men living in unbearable complicity with regimes that ignore justice and decency.
Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall, Bridge of Spies), Ciro Guerra and producer Michael Fitzgerald are teaming up to to bring J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians to the big screen.
Synopsis
For decades the Magistrate has been a loyal servant of the Empire, running the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement and ignoring the impending war with the barbarians. When interrogation experts arrive, however, he witnesses the Empire's cruel and unjust treatment of prisoners of war. Jolted into sympathy for their victims, he commits a quixotic act of rebellion that brands him an enemy of the state.
J. M. Coetzee's prize-winning novel is a startling allegory of the war between opressor and opressed. The Magistrate is not simply a man living through a crisis of conscience in an obscure place in remote times; his situation is that of all men living in unbearable complicity with regimes that ignore justice and decency.
About the Author
J. M. Coetzee was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1940. His many literary prizes include the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature, Lannan Award for Fiction, the CNA Prize, the Booker Prize, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize.