J. M. Coetzee – Life & Times of Michael K

Listening to the audiobook Life & Times of Michael K. [J. M. Coetzee], 1983, which won the Booker Prize for the author.

And I come across this passage:

"...the grandson was being completely open. He had anemia and a weak heart, he said, it was documented, and yet he was sent to the front. They are pulling clerks from their jobs and sending them to the front. How will they manage without clerks? Maybe they decided that in war, there is no need to pay salaries and no need for cashiers? ..."

And then another one:

"I’ll be honest with you, Michael. There's a war going on, people are dying. But I don’t want to fight anyone. I’ve chosen peace for myself. Do you understand? I want peace with everyone. Here, on the farm, there is no war. You and I can live quietly here until peace comes everywhere. No one will disturb us here. Just a little longer, and the war will be over. I was a treasurer, Michael, I know what’s going on. I know how many people run away every month: their whereabouts unknown, their salary payments stopped, a court case opened. Do you understand what I’m saying? I can give you numbers—you’d be shocked! I’m not the only one who fled. Soon, they won’t have enough people to search for deserters, believe me! The country is huge!"

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

— Ecclesiastes 1:9