Waiting for the Barbarians

Summary

The novel «Waiting for the Barbarians» by John Maxwell Coetzee tells the story of an unnamed magistrate who governs a small frontier town in an unspecified empire. The magistrate's life changes when Colonel Joll arrives in town with a mission to suppress a supposed threat from the barbarians. The colonel employs brutal interrogation and torture methods, which lead the magistrate to an internal conflict and doubts about the legitimacy of the empire's actions. The magistrate begins to sympathize with the barbarians and decides to help one of the torture victims, a young woman, by returning her to her people. His actions result in his arrest and accusation of treason. Ultimately, the magistrate realizes the futility of violence and cruelty, as well as the fragility of civilization in the face of barbarism, which, as it turns out, can also originate from the empire itself.