DescriptionABOUT THE BOOKHow can I accept that disaster has overtaken my life when the world continues to move so tranquilly through its cycles?"- The MagistrateWaiting for the Barbarians is JM Coetzee's third novel and was published in 1980. It quickly garnered popular and critical attention for the relatively young South African author. It was awarded the CNA Prize (South Africa's top literary award), the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (Britain's literary prize for authors under 40), and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Scotland's top publishing award as well as one of the oldest literary awards in the UK).This short but powerful novel was written during the time that Coetzee taught literature at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He had returned to his native country in 1972 after the United States government..