The story follows on from the author's first book The Childhood of Jesus. Despite this, you don't need to have read the first book to know what happened as the author does a good job of reminding the reader of the important parts.

Coetzee has a blank slate to invent the world and characters, this exploration is what spurred me to read on to find out more about this town and what would happen next. The prose is simple and the dialogue plain, but its full of symbolism.

It's impossible to not spoil the story by discussing what unfolds, but its interesting enough for the reader to carry on.

Coetzee is a great storyteller, and there's a good mix of dialogue and description and not too many superfluous characters to distract the readers attention from the main protagonists.

For me this is that kind of book for to have an opinion about completely depends on both your reading preferences and your actual state of mind. It is a part parable, part Franz Kafka, part Haruki Murakami, part Jostein Gaardner and part a philosophical work about the meaning and the meaning of meaning. Surprisingly, it is not hard to read - I think this is because Mr Coetzee truly is a master of words and knows to offer even the hard questions in a readable form. Even the plot is present and one truly can get into this world and be truly curious about its inhabitants, who are affected by an unusual boy who both questions their sanity (or sanity?) and sees the things absolutely, furiously differently.
If you are in a state of mind where you are interested in questioning your being, sense of being and the meaning of being - and to do so in the company of good people - you are in the right place.
Yet - I crave a story. I love the books I can get lost into, where I long to immerse into the story and forget my own being. The fairytales, good YA, good mystery, good novels. And this book is not this.
Do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with this book - my preferences simply lie elsewhere. Yet - this is definitely an interesting, provoking yet very kind read. 4 stars and my respect, Mr Coetzee.

A sometimes perplexing sequel to the Childhood of Jesus, this is very much a novel of ideas. Intelligent, frustrating at times and definitely without mass appeal. Not an easy read, yet surprisingly affecting.

Beautifully written but too confusing for me. I totally failed to understand the puzzles the story presented me with.

Whilst Coetzee is always an interesting read, some of his books just fail to really connect with me, and with this the idea had been done better by others.

Normally a huge fan of J M Coetzee, I just couldn't finish this book. It felt far too figurative and allegorical, and I couldn't engage with any part of the story or characters. I absolutely adore J M Coetzees backlist and I tried repeatedly to come back to this book with a fresh perspective, but every time I did I found myself drifting off and losing interest.

This book I found truly awful. I had not read the previous book " the childhood of Jesus" and would definitely have benefitted from knowing that book existed. I assume that David is Jesus but a child less like Jesus is hard to imagine, a petulant , life owes me everything sort of child I hated him as a character, IN fact none of the characters endeared themselves to me and the story line was simply a miss mash of events.

This is the second in a series following David, a small child and his guardians Simon and Ines. Whilst I was reading there were some points which referenced their past, but wasn't clear about the intricacies. I didn't realise at the time that this was because of a previous book. I had assumed it was a mystery which would show itself further in the book. Strangely, I had the wrong assumption.

The continued use of “to him, Simon”, “so he, Simon”, and “he, Simon” grated on my nerves within the first few chapters. Unfortunately, this never got easier to read. It seemed to me that the author wasn't sure whether to use Simon or He and so used both unnecessarily.

Although it was easy to follow, the plot was... tedious. There were many repetitive thoughts from Simon, mundane questions from David and no true answers. The headstrong boy, David seemed too unrealistic to relate to. Simon too consistantly bland. Ines too distant to care for. Is the book meant to link to the bible? To Jesus's childhood? Coetzee has made the messiah and his earthbound family boring and unlikable.

I kept turning the page to find out what the key message was supposed to be as surely this book was meant to have a deep underlying message? Yet, nothing appeared from the end. Was Schooldays of Jesus meant to not have a clear message? The same way Simon never understands 'calling down the numbers'? Is Coetzee giving himself an open for his next book?

This book doesn't do justice to Coetzee's apparent brilliant mind and insightful writing. Although, maybe his work is for people who enjoy reading philosophical and allegory books. This person is, of course, not me.

Unfortunately this one wasn't for me. It may have been just bad timing but I couldn't get into the style of writing.

Thankyou for approving my request to read it as, even though I did not finish the book, I have definitely been able to take something from it for referral purposes to customers.