Youth

Youth's narrator, a student in 1950s South Africa, has long been plotting an escape from his native country. Studying mathematics, reading poetry, saving money, he tries to ensure that when he arrives in the real world he will be prepared to experience life to its full intensity, and transform it into art. Arriving at last in London, however, he finds neither poetry nor romance. Instead he succumbs to the monotony of life as a computer programmer, from which random, loveless affairs offer no relief. Devoid of inspiration, he stops writing and begins a dark pilgrimage in which he is continually tested and continually found wanting.

Set against the background of the 1960s, Youth is a remarkable portrait of a consciousness turning in on itself. J. M. Coetzee explores a young man's struggle to find his way in the world with tenderness and a fierce clarity.
“One of the finest authors writing in the English language today.” -- The Times

“Brilliant as a period piece, Youth also constitutes a remarkable feat of self-destruction.” -- Sunday Times

“Youth shares with Hanif Kureshi’s Intimacy and Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair a rare combination of lived experience, expressed with eloquence, and a fierce uncompromising honesty. A masterpiece.” -- Harpers & Queen

“Coetzee is one of the greatest writers of our time.” -- Los Angeles Times

“Coetzee is able to dissect the human psyche with a surgeon’s touch.” -- The Hamilton Spectator

Of the Booker Prize-winning Disgrace:
“The richness of Disgrace lies in the elegant and allegorical role reversals, the spare symbolism of the language and in the characterization. We may not like David Lurie, but in Coetzee’s skillful hands we can’t dismiss him without pity.” -- The Globe and Mail