Books

First edition of this collection of essays regarding the Nobel Prize-winning author's classic Waiting For the Barbarians. Octavo, original wrappers as issued. Association copy, inscribed by the author, "To J.M. Coetzee with much admiration for his imaginative powers. Jean-Pierre Durix 25 October 1999." In fine condition. From the library of J.M. Coetzee. Waiting for the Barbarians is an allegory of oppressor and oppressed. Not just a man living through a crisis of conscience in an obscure place in remote times, the Magistrate is an analogue of all men living in complicity with regimes that ignore justice and decency. "I have known few authors who can evoke such a wilderness in the heart of a man. Mr. Coetzee knows the elusive terror of Kafka" (Bernard Levin, The Sunday Times).

A novel set in an unnamed empire, where an imperial magistrate grapples with the moral implications of colonialism and oppression.