Skip to main content

Waiting for the barbarians

Coetzee, J. M., 1940-2006
Book
For decades the Magistrate has run the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement, ignoring the impending war between the barbarians and his Empire. But when the interrogation experts arrive, he is jolted into sympathy with the victims and an act of rebellion which sees him imprisoned as an enemy of the state. The modern classic from double Booker Prize winner J.M. Coetzee - soon to be a major film starring Mark Rylance, Robert Pattinson and Johnny DeppFor decades the Magistrate has run the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement, ignoring the impending war between the barbarians and the Empire, whose servant he is. But when the interrogation experts arrive, he is jolted into sympathy with the victims and into a quixotic act of rebellion which lands him in prison, branded as an enemy of the state. 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.
Main title:
Imprint:
London : Vintage, 2004.
Collation:
169 p. ; 20 cm.
Notes:
Originally published: London: Secker & Warburg, 1980.
Awards:
CNA Prize; Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize; James Tait Black Memorial Prize
ISBN:
9780099465935 (pbk)
Dewey class:
823.914
LC class:
PR9369.3.C58
Language:
English
BRN:
579541
Clear current selections
items currently selected
View my active Pick list
0Items in my active Pick list