Waiting for the Barbarians

The beast lurking within us must be driven only against ourselves.

For many years, the nameless Magistrate was a faithful servant of the nameless Empire—he managed affairs in a tiny colonial town somewhere in the Near East. The townspeople live in constant fear: they fear the invasion of barbarians so much that at some point they decide to take matters into their own hands. Shaken by the cruelty around him, the Magistrate tries to show humanity, but that leads only to the state machine turning against him.

Kootzee’s famous novel is a parable about the confrontation between a person and a regime, oppression, and cruelty. Its dense and complex text raises eternal questions and leaves no peace: what exactly is shame for each person, and how the conditions in which we live shape and change this very concept every hour.