A first volume of memoirs, revisiting the South Africa of half a century ago, of a boy growing up in a small country town with a father he could not respect and a mother he adored. Coetzee evokes the tensions, delights and terrors of childhood, in a world of unexplained rules he knew he must obey.

A first volume of memoirs, revisiting the South Africa of half a century ago, of a boy growing up in a small country town with a father he could not respect and a mother he adored. Coetzee evokes the tensions, delights and terrors of childhood, in a world of unexplained rules he knew he must obey.