'Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee reaffirms his place as one of the English language's most acclaimed authors with this fascinating examination of life, death and animals.
'These six stories by Nobel-Prize-winning J. M. Coetzee remind us that he is a writer whose language explores moral and emotional quandaries, often with wry humour. In the lead story, 'The Pole', set in Spain, concert pianist Witold attempts to play out a romantic fantasy with local music devotee Beatriz, who is considerably younger and whose marriage has gone cold. In person and in their correspondence, he is persistent, she resistant, but curious. It doesn't end quite as she might have imagined.
'The redoubtable character of Elizabeth Costello, now in her seventies, appears in four stories, engaging in philosophical discussions about death, motherhood and ethics with her adult children, in particular her son John. In the last story, 'The Dog', a young woman confronts a vicious dog- '"Curse you to hell!" she says. Then she mounts her bicycle and sets off up the hill.' (Publication summary)
'The word ‘bleak’ has often dogged J.M. Coetzee’s fiction. Placing his most recent book of short stories within his complete oeuvre, Ellena Savage uncovers the comic sensibility that suffuses Coetzee’s treatment of sex, morals, and civilisation.' (Introduction)
'Coetzee’s most important books remain the ones he wrote before the Nobel, though another way to put that is to say that they’re the ones he wrote before leaving South Africa for a new life in Australia'
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'Devotees of J.M. Coetzee’s writing will be delighted at the publication of The Pole and Other Stories. What may be surprising to some about this collection is that the stories have all appeared before in some form – but not always in English.' (Introduction)
'The Nobel laureate’s new collection of stories is concerned with death, desire and old age, glinting with flashes of humour and grand, existential strangeness'
'What is love? It’s a question we’ve struggled with since Eve, Adam, the asp and the apple. It has inspired a billion songs. The one that comes to mind as I think of J. M. Coetzee’s The Pole and Other Stories is the 1939 jazz standard “Comes Love (Nothing Can Be Done)”: “Don’t try hiding cause there isn’t any use / You’ll start sliding when your heart turns on the juice”.' (Introduction)
