The Death of Jesus
Shortlist year:
2020
Shortlist category:
Fiction
Published by:
Text Publishing
About the book
After 'The Childhood of Jesus' and 'The Schooldays of Jesus', J. M. Coetzee completes his trilogy with a new masterwork, 'The Death of Jesus'.
David has grown to be a tall ten-year-old. He is a natural at soccer, and loves kicking a ball around with his friends. His father and dog usually watch. His mother works in a fashion boutique. One day Julio Fabricante, the director of a nearby orphanage, invites David and his friends to form a proper soccer team. David decides he will leave his parents to live with Julio. Before long he succumbs to a mysterious illness.
About the author
J. M. Coetzee
J. M. Coetzee was the first author to win the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003.
Judges’ comments
'The Death of Jesus' is the conclusion of J. M. Coetzee's trilogy about a child, apparently exceptional, who is known simply as David. Having eschewed conventional schooling and rejected his surrogate parents, Simón and Inés, David succumbs to a rare illness that quickly and unexpectedly proves fatal to him. Seen through the eyes of Simón, whose affection for the child is seldom expressed yet all encompassing, this is a compelling exploration of love and loss. Throughout the carefully controlled and seemingly cool narrative, Coetzee's prose is exquisite: sparse and crisp and sharp. Bubbling under the linguistic restraint, however, is a bristling, burning rawness. This is what gives the work its power, allowing the reader to fully engage with Simón's contained and sometimes wordless grief. In questioning the legacy and meaning of a life so prematurely ended, 'The Death of Jesus' offers a powerful meditation on the intersection of love, alienation, estrangement and grief.
