Í hugtakandi ævisøguni BARNAÁR granskar Coetzee persónsmenskuna og kensluligu búningina hjá einum gávaðum og væl at sær komnum dreingi frá tí, at hann er tíggju til trettan ár.

Hampiligur í skúlanum, bestur í flokkinum, men harðráðin við hús. Helt hánt um pápan og livdi í ótta fyri at missa kærleikan hjá mammuni. Hann píndist av skuld og ótta.

Hann fekk eyguni upp fyri bókmentum, hann vaknaði kynsliga og setti ørkymlandi spurningar um apartheid. Bara á grasfløtunum kendi hann seg heima.

Søgan fer fram úti á bygd einar 100 km uttan fyri Cape Town í 1940- og 1950 árunum. Foreldrini eru afrikanar, og hann fær alt tað, tann hvíta miðalstættin hevur framíhjá, ta betru útbúgvingina og alt hitt, sum ger, at tey ''prefer to be English''.

Men tað elur fram iva og skomm.

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J. M (John Maxwell) Coetzee er føddur í 1940. Hann er suðurafrikani, sum flutti til Avstralia at búgva í 2002. Víða gitin sum høvundur og í 2003 fekk hann heiðursløn Nobels fyri fagrar bókmentir. Fáir høvundar, sum skriva á enskum, hava fingið so nógvar viðurkenningar sum Coetzee.

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In the captivating biography BARNAÁR (Childhood years), Coetzee investigates the personality and emotional development of a gifted and capable boy, from when the boy is ten years of age until he turns thirteen.

Decently behaved at school, top of his class, yet tyrannical at home. Flouting his father and in constant fear of loosing his mother’s affection. He struggled with guilt and fear.

He discovered literature, became sexually aware, and mystified, he questioned apartheid. He only felt at home on the grassy fields.

The stage is set in a town about 100 km outside of Cape Town in the 1940s and 1950s. His parents are African, and he is given every opportunity granted to the white middle-class, the superior education and the rest of it, which makes them “prefer to be English”.

But all this breeds doubt and shame.

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J. M. (John Maxwell) Coetzee was born in 1940. He is South African and moved to Australia in 2002. A renowned author, in 2003 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Few English-language writers have received as much praise as Coetzee.