Peter Bergsma Books

A magistrate in a country village protests the army's treatment of members of the barbarian tribes taken prisoner during a civil war and finds himself arrested as a traitor.

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

Youth's narrator, a student in 1950s South Africa, has long been plotting an escape from his native country. Studying mathematics, reading poetry, saving money, he tries to ensure that when he arrives in the real world he will be prepared to experience life to its full intensity, and transform it into art. Arriving at last in London, however, he finds neither poetry nor romance. Instead he succumbs to the monotony of life as a computer programmer, from which random, loveless affairs offer no relief. Devoid of inspiration, he stops writing and begins a dark pilgrimage in which he is continually tested and continually found wanting. Set against the background of the 1960s, Youth is a remarkable portrait of a consciousness turning in on itself. J. M. Coetzee explores a young man's struggle to find his way in the world with tenderness and a fierce clarity.

Klara and the Sun is the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2017

A famous writer is commissioned to contribute to a book of essays called Strong Opinions when he meets a young woman who lives in his apartment tower. He asks her to become his . . . In the laundry room of her apartment block a young woman makes the acquaintance of an ageing writer. She agrees to type up his opinions, although she is aware that what he really desires . . . The young woman's boyfriend starts to spy on his neighbour and hatches a jealous plot to . . . J. M. Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year was shortlisted for the 2008 NSW Premier's Literary Award, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Award for Fiction and Award for Innovation at the 2008 SA Festival Awards for Literature. It is an extraordinary and utterly original novel about loneliness, friendship and the possibility of love. Diary of a Bad Year takes the reader from Australian democracy to Guantanamo Bay, from the meaning of dishonour to the creative truth of dreams. Written in a wholly innovative form for three simultaneous voices, Diary of a Bad Year is enthralling, unexpected and deeply moving.

A young refugee washes up unconscious on the beach of a small island inhabited by no one but Samuel, an old lighthouse keeper. Unsettled, Samuel is soon swept up in memories of his former life on the mainland: a life that saw his country suffer, then fight for independence, only to fall to a cruel dictator; he recalls his own part in its history.

'Bloomington- Now that I have been here a while, I can say with confidence that I have never been here before.' 'Delightful, deeply moving, deliciously humorous, beautiful and surprising.' Financial Times'One of America's finest practitioners of prose . . . brimming with renewed inventiveness and the ability to assault readers with an upped dosage of wit, pathos and insight. Stunning, mesmerising.' Herald'A chance to revel . . . good, funny, remarkable.' Observer'Take these writings as they come, slowly. You will go back to a little gem that has wormed its way into your mind and stuck there, and discover that it is indeed a little gem, which sparkles a different way each time and flashes with a brief beauty of hidden meaning.' Susan Hill, Spectator'Davis can invest descriptions of everyday events with startling reserves of emotion. She has a brilliant eye for the surprising, vibrant detail.'Sunday Times'A clever and refreshing observation of the world around us.' Stylist'One of the unique creations of American literature.' Prospect

Clay comes home on break from his East Coast college to a landscape of limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where the natives drive Porsches, dine at Spago, and gobble their Quaaludes from Pez dispensers. Where else can Clay go but down? "A teenage slice-of-death novel, no holds barred".--VILLAGE VOICE. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

After a life-altering cycling accident leads to the amputation of his leg, Paul Rayment grapples with complex emotions for his nurse and her attractive teenage son. His world is further disrupted by the unexpected visit of renowned Australian novelist Elizabeth Costello, who seeks to influence both his recovery and romantic entanglements. The interplay of personal struggles and external influences shapes a poignant narrative about love, loss, and the quest for direction in life.

Elizabeth Costello is an Australian writer of international renown. Famous principally for an early novel that established her reputation, she has reached the stage where her remaining function is to be venerated and applauded. Her life has become a series of engagements in sterile conference rooms throughout the world - a private consciousness obliged to reveal itself to a curious public: the presentation of a major award at an American college where she is required to deliver a lecture; a sojourn as the writer in residence on a cruise liner; a visit to her sister, a missionary in Africa, who is receiving an honorary degree, an occasion which both recognise as the final opportunity for effecting some form of reconciliation; and a disquieting appearance at a writers' conference in Amsterdam where she finds the subject of her talk unexpectedly amongst the audience. She has made her life's work the study of other people yet now it is she who is the object of scrutiny. But, for her, what matters is the continuing search for a means of articulating her vision and the verdict of future generations.

In een brief aan haar dochter beschrijft een oude, blanke vrouw uit Kaapstad de wreedheden van de Apartheid waarmee ze de laatste maanden van haar leven wordt geconfronteerd.

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