Waiting for the Barbarians

1980. First Edition. Signed. COETZEE, John Maxwell. Waiting for the Barbarians. London: Secker & Warburg, (1980). Octavo, original black paper boards, original dust jacket. $2700.First edition of this novel universalizing a raw and terrible moment in South Africa's history, inscribed: ""For John, J.M. Coetzee.""""I have known few authors who can evoke such a wilderness in the heart of a man… Mr. Coetzee knows the elusive terror of Kafka"" (The Sunday Times). ""Waiting for the Barbarians was written in 1980, during the apartheid regime in South Africa. But what it says about torture remains true today. If the state wants to stand up to barbarity, it cannot validate it by unleashing it on its own prisoners"" (NPR). Book fine, dust jacket near-fine, with toning to spine. A handsome inscribed copy.