Iron Age

One of J.M.Coetzee's most realistic and most admired novels, The Age of Iron , begins with a farewell letter written by an old professor dying of cancer to her daughter, who, unable to stand life in South Africa, escaped to America and started a family there.
When Mrs. Curren, who has accepted her doctor's diagnosis, returns home, she encounters a homeless man who has settled down at the bottom of the dead-end street next door; her only companion in her lonely life, the only person to whom she can confess her increasing anger and hopelessness, is this homeless, alcoholic man who appears on her doorstep one day. The
brutal murder of Bheki, the teenage son of Mrs. Curren's black maid, the burned towns of black people, the massacred young people and the ghostly presence of Vercueil become the emotional poles of the professor's waning days. Having opposed the lies and cruelty of apartheid, yet living in isolation from its true horror, Mrs. Curren is one of the whites who rebel against the social and political tragedy, injustice and cruelty experienced in a country devastated by racism and violence. Cleverly constructed and full of metaphors , Iron Age has remained one of the most striking works of literature on South African apartheid since its publication.
“Coetzee is one of the great writers of our time... Iron Age is tense, ironic, sad and surprising.”
Los Angeles Times
“A remarkable work from a brilliant writer.”
The Wall Street Journal