Waiting For The Barbarians

Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel set in an unnamed empire, at a remote frontier town. The narrator is the aging magistrate, a quiet official who has lived peacefully among the local people. When officers of the Empire arrive, convinced that nomadic barbarians are preparing an attack, he is drawn into the harsh methods used to gather information.

As fear spreads, the magistrate begins to question his own part in the system he serves. The book is a parable about power, fear of the outsider and the conscience of an ordinary man. Because it names no real country or era, it speaks to many times and places.