"Boyhood": A Hefty Mandate for a Young Boy

Boyhood ends with Aunt Annie's death and funeral. She was the aunt who had made it her life's mission to sell/distribute her father's eccentric book Ewige Genesing (Eternal Healing).

The close is something of an edict from self to self. The young Coetzee has taken it upon himself to remember things no one else will. An impetus for writing?
He alone is left to do the thinking. How will he keep them all in his head, all the books, all the people, all the stories? And if he does not remember them, who will?

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