First published 2020
Through a series of striking black-and-white photographs, acclaimed writer J.M. Coetzee offers a rare glimpse into his formative years in apartheid-era South Africa. Haunting images capture the young Coetzee at play, at school, and in quiet solitude, evoking the textures and rhythms of a vanished world. As these snapshots accumulate, a poignant portrait emerges - of a sensitive boy navigating the social and political complexities of a rapidly changing nation. Coetzee's spare, elegant captions provide tantalizing hints, but ultimately it is the photographs themselves that speak volumes, inviting us to imagine the thoughts and feelings of the boy who would become one of the 20th century's most celebrated authors.
Genres: biography, 20th-century, african-literature, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century, photography
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate
Tropes: coming-of-age
Setting: South Africa
Period: Apartheid Era
192 pages · Paperback · Protea Boekhuis