The Schooldays of Jesus Summary
J. M. Coetzee

The Schooldays of Jesus Overview

The Schooldays of Jesus is a novel told in a linear fashion using third-person present-tense narration. It takes place in modern day and is set in an unnamed Spanish-speaking country in the fictional town of Estrella. The protagonist is a middle-aged man named Simón who has taken responsibility of an orphaned child named Davíd. A woman named Inés has taken on the role of Davíd’s mother. These three characters have come to Estrella from the town of Novilla as fugitives from legal authorities who wish to take Davíd as a ward of the government. In Estrella, Simón and Inés look for work while also searching for a suitable education for Davíd. Davíd becomes a pupil at the local Academy of Dance, where he comes under the influence of the spiritual dance teacher Ana Magdalena and a malevolent deceiver named Dmitri.