BOYHOOD, scenes from provincial life

166 pp., paperback, Reprint, London, (1997) 1998

J.M. Coetzee writes about his childhood in a small country town in South Africa.

"This life is described with such skill, such exactitude and such relentlessness that I found myself gasping for air ... Coetzee has achieved something universal in his work ... a fine book, probably the best description of a childhood I have ever read" The Times

"As funny, cruel and terrifying as life itself. It is also intense and elegant, clearly the product of the complex, subtle imagination which shapes Coetzee's outstanding fiction ... As austerely beautiful as would be expected of Coetzee the artist ... its aloof, edgy grace and seething passion ensure the narrative is both truthful and mysterious" Irish Times

"Boyhood is a deeply-felt and utterly compelling account of a South African childhood: the narrative style is as spare and lean as the Karoo flatlands which form its backdrop" Daily Telegraph

J.M. Coetzee’s work includes Waiting for the Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K, Youth, Disgrace, Summertime and the Jesus Trilogy. He was the first author to win the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.