A review by clovispantera
The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee

4.0

Kafkaesque in the most literal sense (it reads like a novel by Kafka), surreal, somewhat haunting. Childhood of Jesus takes place in a sparsely described city, run by a benevolent albeit soulless bureaucracy, where most people live on a diet of bread and water. Spanish is the official language: new arrivals (its strongly implied everyone here is an immigrant) are given a Spanish name and encouraged to forget all about their past lives. The protagonist, Simon, arrives with a boy named David who fell into his charge by chance, determined to locate the boy's mother. Just like a Kafka novel the story takes numerous unexpected turns, and one senses there's an allegory below the surface (an allegory that defies explication). 3 1/2 stars