J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians

First published in 1980, this novel, like Gilead years later, won a major literary prize (the Nobel rather than the Pulitzer), and, again like Gilead, it won for a very good reason. Coetzee deftly creates a powerful account of an empire in fear from those beyond its borders, a darker-skinned, shadowy group that supposedly poses a threat both to security and moral righteousness. What I found most powerful about this short novel, though, was its resonances in 2007, and indeed this timeless novel, set in an unknown land, begs us to situate this understanding of threatened power and coercion through fear wherever we may. We all know who the “barbarians” in this novel are, even if this account pushes its different readers around the globe and back and forth through centuries. I strongly recommend this book and wonder if there will ever be a time when it will cease to be so sadly pertinent.