Waiting for the Barbarians

For 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.

Winner of Nobel Prize 2003

“"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." -- Sunday Times”

Brilliant . . . The story of an imaginary Empire, set in an unspecified place and time . . . A realistic fable, at once exciting and economical . . . A distinguished piece of fiction New York Times
A writer of formidable strength. His novel is important not only for its theme but also for the beauty and clarity of his style Daily Telegraph
I have known few authors who can evoke such a wilderness in the heart of man . . . Coetzee knows the elusive terror of Kafka Sunday Times
J.M. Coetzee’s vision goes to the nerve centre of being. What he finds there is more than most people will ever know about themselves, and he conveys it with a brilliant writer’s mastery of tension and elegance
A remarkable and original book
A powerful – even prophetic – intelligence at work Independent on Sunday
This is a voice at once authoritative and subtle: a very powerful combination Observer
A work of great accomplishment -- Abdulrazak Gurnah Week

J. M. Coetzee's work includes Waiting For The Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K, Boyhood- Scenes From Provincial Life, Youth, and Disgrace which won the Booker Prize, making him the first author to have won it twice. In 2003 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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