DUSKLANDS

125 pp., paperback, Reprint, London, (1982) 2004

J.M.Coetzee's first novel, consists of two separate stories, "The Vietnam Project" and "The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee."

Coetzee, an 18th-century Boer frontiersman, wreaks vengeance on a Hottentot tribe. In the 20th century, Eugene Dawn, a specialist in psychological warfare, is driven to breakdown and madness by the stresses of a project to win the war in Vietnam. 

 "Its unflinching sense of loss, its claustrophobic acknowledgement of the unwilling interdependence of master and slave, and its subtle prose-style, make it an extraordinary achievement" Guardian

"His writing gives off whiffs of Conrad, of Nabokov, of Golding, of the Paul Theroux of The Mosquito Coast. But he is none of these, he is a harsh, compelling voice" Sunday Times

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.