'A woman who comes and goes from work by bicycle, every day on the same road, experiences all the ferocity of the world in the growl of a dog who punctually threatens her. Tested by this daily, unjustified explosion of violence, she decides to knock on the door of the dog's owners: but in humans she will find violence even deeper and more impenetrable than animal violence. A mother and grandmother, in whom Coetzee readers will recognize Elizabeth Costello, decides on the day of her sixty-fifth birthday to welcome children and grandchildren with a trendy cut and dyed hair of a bright blonde. Then again Elizabeth, a few years later, who lives withdrawn in a house in the Spanish countryside. Alone with her cats and the bitter awareness that it is not love as much as duty that regulates life. And finally her son, who goes to visit her to try to make her accept the ultimate truth, the one from which, at a certain point, he will no longer be able to hide ... In seven exemplary stories, which have the dryness of the parable and the intensity of revelation, JM Coetzee addresses all the themes of his literature: the relationship between the human and the animal, the hypocrisy that hides injustice, the universal need for forgiveness. They are "moral stories" because they are never moralistic, and they always oppose the disturbance of doubt to the consolation of a "fairy tale morality". M. Coetzee deals with all the themes of his literature: the relationship between the human and the animal, the hypocrisy that hides injustice, the universal need for forgiveness. They are "moral stories" because they are never moralistic, and they always oppose the disturbance of doubt to the consolation of a "fairy tale morality". M. Coetzee deals with all the themes of his literature: the relationship between the human and the animal, the hypocrisy that hides injustice, the universal need for forgiveness. They are "moral stories" because they are never moralistic, and they always oppose the disturbance of doubt to the consolation of a "fairy tale morality".' (Translated publication summary)
