'A Book of Friends is a gift to John Coetzee on his eightieth birthday. It's not simply a tribute to him, as writer and thinker, in the oblique, complimentary manner of the Festschrift, although it is certainly that too. Rather, it is a gift of love, from myself, its editor and his life-companion over four decades, and from a few of those whose creative work and conversations John has admired and enjoyed in the regions where he has lived or worked.'
(Introduction)
