Youth

At The Age Of seventeen, J. M. Coetzee set out on his own, determined to break all ties with his family in Cape Town, to put himself through university, to fall in love, to live as intensely as the artists he revered--Picasso, Henry Miller, Ezra Pound--and to become a literary artist in his own right. In Youth, South Africa's preeminent fiction writer continues the fascinating story that he began in the highly acclaimed memoir Boyhood. With devastating clarity, Coetzee recalls his spartan student life & the unexpected, often disturbing adventures that punctuated it. A brief, explosive first love affair leaves him shaken as he wonders if the woman who seduced him is psychotic. Despite a passion for Flaubert, Conrad, & Henry James, he receives mediocre grades--which make him doubt his conviction that he too is destined for literary greatness. And while he struggles after university with a demanding job as a computer programmer, racial tensions become an ever more violent part of daily life in South Africa. Bridging the difficult years between his departure from home & the writing of his first book, Coetzee's Youth is a searing, intimate, utterly spellbinding memoir, a dazzling performance from one of the most daring artists of our time.Coetzee, J. M. is the author of 'Youth' with ISBN 9780670031023 and ISBN 067003102X.