A megalomaniac Boer frontiersman wreaks hideous vengeance on a Hottentot tribe for undermining the 'natural' order of his universe with their anarchic rival order, mocking him and subjecting him to the humiliations of his own all too palpable flesh. A specialist in psychological warfare is driven to breakdown and madness by the stresses of a project of macabre ingenuity to win the war in Vietnam. Both the 18th-century Jacobus Coetzee and the 20th-century Eugene Dawn are in the business of pushing back the frontiers of knowledge and are dealers in death who denounce their own humanity and spurn their feelings of guilt. In these two narratives, Coetzee has crystallized in their absurdity and horror the extremes of scientific evangelism and heroic exploration.
- ISBN10 043610296X
- ISBN13 9780436102967
- Publish Date 10 January 1982
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 30 March 2005
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Vintage Publishing
- Imprint Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 144
- Language English