First published 2009
A young biographer interviews the former lovers, friends, and family of the late writer John Coetzee, seeking to uncover the period when he was "finding his feet as a writer." Coetzee's awkward, bookish persona emerges through their conflicting accounts, set against the rundown Cape Town cottage he shared with his widowed father. Heartbreaking and often funny, this portrait of a literary giant's early struggles defies easy answers.
Genres: 20th-century, biographical-fiction, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Cape Town
Period: Thirties
272 pages · Hardcover · Viking