J.M. Coetzee, página 4 de 12

A calamitous cycling accident results in the amputation of Paul Rayment's leg. His feelings for his nurse, and for her handsome teenage son, are complicated by the sudden arrival on his doorstep of the celebrated Australian novelist Elizabeth Costello, who threatens to take over the direction of his life and the affairs of his heart.

Paul Rayment is on the threshold of a comfortable old age when a calamitous cycling accident results in the amputation of a leg. Humiliated, his body truncated, his life circumscribed, he turns away from his friends. He hires a nurse named Marijana, with whom he has a European childhood in common: hers in Croatia, his in France. Tactfully and efficiently she ministers to his needs. But his feelings for her, and for her handsome teenage son, are complicated by the sudden arrival on his doorstep of the celebrated Australian novelist Elizabeth Costello, who threatens to take over the direction of his life and the affairs of his heart. Unflinching in its vision of suffering and generous in its portrayal of the spirit of care, Slow Man is a masterful work of fiction by one of the world's greatest writers.

Escrit com a continuació d’Infantesa. Escenes de la vida a províncies, a Joventut, Coetzee evoca, en forma de memòries, els anys seixanta; un període fonamental d’aprenentatge en el qual el narrador

Stifled by the torpor of colonial South Africa and trapped in a web of reciprocal oppression, a lonely sheep farmer seeks comfort in the arms of a black concubine. But when his embittered spinster daughter Magda feels shamed, this lurch across the racial divide marks the end of a tenuous feudal peace. As she dreams madly of bloody revenge, Magda's consciousness starts to drift and the line between fact and the workings of her excited imagination becomes blurred. What follows is the fable of a woman's passionate, obsessed and violent response to an Africa that will not heed her.

Paul Rayment is on the threshold of a comfortable old age when a calamitous cycling accident results in the amputation of a leg. Humiliated, his body truncated, his life circumscribed, he turns away from his friends. He hires a nurse named Marijana, with whom he has a European childhood in common: hers in Croatia, his in France. Tactfully and efficiently she ministers to his needs. But his feelings for her, and for her handsome teenage son, are complicated by the sudden arrival on his doorstep of the celebrated Australian novelist Elizabeth Costello, who threatens to take over the direction of his life and the affairs of his heart. Unflinching in its vision of suffering and generous in its portrayal of the spirit of care, Slow Man is a masterful work of fiction by one of the world's greatest writers.

Quan el fotograf Paul Rayment perd una cama en un accident de bicicleta, la seva solitaria vida canvia de manera irrevocable. Amb tossuderia, rebutjant una protesi, Paul torna al seu apartament de solter a Adelaida, incomode per la seva nova situacio de dependencia dels altres. Entre successius atacs de desesperacio i resignacio, Paul comença a repassar els seus seixanta anys de vida, pero aviat s?anima en enamorar-se de la Marijana, la infermera croata practica i realista que lluita per pujar la seva familia en una terra estrangera. Mentre Paul pensa com conquistar el seu cor, el visita la misteriosa escriptora Elizabeth Costello, que el desafia a prendre un paper actiu en la seva propia vida.A Home lent, la veu clara i inflexible de J.M. Coetzee ofereix una meditacio profunda sobre el que ens fa humans, sobre que vol dir fer-se gran, i reflexiona sobre com hem viscut les nostres vides. Una historia profundament commovedora sobre l?amor i la mortalitat que sorpren el lector a cada pagina. J. M. Coetzee (Ciutat del Cap, 1940) va estudiar ciencies informatiques i filologia a Sud-africa i als Estats Units. La seva primera novel·la va ser Dusklands, seguida d?In the Heart of the Country, que va guanyar el premi literari mes important de Sud-africa, el CNA. Es autor tambe d?Esper

«El territorio Coetzee es árido, inquieto, inhóspito por momentos y laberíntico. No hay cartel alguno que anuncie la salida, sencillamente porque no hay salida.» El Periódico «Una formidable lección

Elizabeth Costello is an Australian writer of international renown; she is feted, studied, honoured. Famous principally for an early novel that established her reputation and from which, it seems, she will never escape, she has reached the stage, late in life, where her remaining function is to be venerated and applauded. One of a new breed of intellectual nomads, her life has become a series of engagements in sterile conference rooms throughout the world - a private consciousness obliged to reveal itself to a curious public: the presentation of a major award at an American college where she is required to deliver a lecture; a sojourn as the writer in residence on a cruise liner during which she encounters a fellow guest lecturer, an African poet also employed to divert the passengers; a visit to her sister, a missionary in Africa, who is receiving an honorary degree, an occasion which both recognise as the final opportunity for effecting some form of reconciliation; and a disquieting appearance at a writers' conference in Amsterdam where she finds the subject of her talk unexpectedly amongst the audience. She has made her life's work the study of other people yet now it is she who is the object of scrutiny. But, for her, what matters is the continuing search for a means of articulating her vision and the verdict of future generations. Elizabeth Costello is a humane, moral, and uncompromising creation; J. M. Coetzee's latest work of fiction offers us a profound and delicate vision of literary celebrity, artistry and the private life of the mind.

Youth's narrator, a student in 1950s South Africa, has long been plotting an escape from his native country. Studying mathematics, reading poetry, saving money, he tries to ensure that when he arrives in the real world he will be prepared to experience life to its full intensity, and transform it into art. Arriving at last in London, however, he finds neither poetry nor romance. Instead he succumbs to the monotony of life as a computer programmer, from which random, loveless affairs offer no relief. Devoid of inspiration, he stops writing and begins a dark pilgrimage in which he is continually tested and continually found wanting. Set against the background of the 1960s, Youth is a remarkable portrait of a consciousness turning in on itself. J. M. Coetzee explores a young man's struggle to find his way in the world with tenderness and a fierce clarity.

«Desde los años sesenta, en que se sirvió de un ordenador Univac 1106 para estudiar la prosa de Samuel Beckett, J. M. Coetzee ha sido un arriesgado explorador del lenguaje. Coetzee ha emprendido una

Una sobrecogedora historia ambientada en la actual Sudáfrica. La adversidad más terrible se cierne sobre un profesor universitaria que ve tronchada su carrera y arruinada su vida por una serie de brutales circunstancias. Una magistral novela que obtuvo el premio Booker 2000.

Elisabeth Costello, una distingida novel.lista australiana, és convidada a una universitat americana per parlar sobre els drets dels animals. El seu discurs, intel.ligent i visceral, posa al descobert les fal.làcies filosòfiques i els reduccionismes antropològis que han justificat totes les atrocitats comeses contre les bèsties i ens proposa una nova manera de relacionar-nos amb el regne animal. J.M. Coetzee no es limita a exposarnos les seves idees i la simpatia o l’hostilitat que susciten; també explota els efectes còmics que es desprenen de la reacció escèptica dels acadèmics i ens endinsa en les pors d’una dona extremadament convincent i convençuda que no pot oblidar en cap moment la seva condició de mortal.

"Coetzee stirs our imaginations by confronting us with an articulate, intelligent, aging, and increasingly alienated novelist who cannot help but be exasperated with her fellow human beings, many of them academics, who are unnecessarily cruel to animals, and apparently (but not admittedly) committed to cruelty. The story urges us to reconceive our devotion to reason as a universal value.

Tiene diez años. Vive en Worcester, una pequeña localidad al norte de Ciudad del Cabo, con una madre a la que adora y detesta a la vez, un hermano menor y un padre por quien no siente respeto alguno. Lleva una doble vida: en el colegio es el alumno modelico, el primero de la clase; en casa, un pequeño despota. Los secretos, los engaños y los miedos le atormentan; el amor por la granja familiar y por el veld, las desnudas mesetas sudafricanas, le arraigan a la tierra. J. M. Coetzee vuelca todas sus dotes de narrador sobrio, mesurado y elegante en este relato lleno de fuerza, en el que evoca su infancia a comienzos de los años cincuenta; escenas de una vida de provincias donde la inocencia en su estado mas puro y la violencia soterrada forman parte, tanto de la propia historia como de la de Sudafrica.

És una novelála apassionant i plena d�inteláligència: quasi una alálegoria a l�estil d�Orwell o d�Els idus de març de Thorton Wilder. Coetzee hi descriu un ambient mig històric mig futurista, no llig

A los cincuenta y dos años, David Lurie tiene poco de lo que enorgullecerse. Con dos divorcios a sus espaldas, apaciguar el deseo es su única aspiración; sus clases en la universidad son un mero trámite para el y para los estudiantes. Cuando se destapa su relacion con una alumna, David, en un acto de soberbia, preferira renunciar a su puesto antes que disculparse en publico. Rechazado por todos, abandona Ciudad del Cabo y va a visitar la granja de su hija Lucy. Alli, en una sociedad donde los codigos de comportamiento, sean de blancos o de negros, han cambiado; donde el idioma es una herramienta viciada que no sirve a este mundo naciente, David vera hacerse añicos todas sus creencias en una tarde de violencia implacable. Una historia profunda, extraordinaria, que por momentos atenaza el corazon, y siempre, hasta el final, subyugante: Desgracia, la ultima novela de J. M. Coetzee, no dejara indiferente al lector.

Stifled by the torpor of colonial South Africa, and trapped in a web of reciprocal oppression, a lonely sheep farmer seeks comfort in the arms of a black concubine. But when his embittered spinster daughter Magda feels shamed, this lurch across the racial divide marks the end of a tenuous feudal peace. As she dreams madly of bloody revenge, Magda's consciousnessstarts to drift and the line between fact and theworkings of her excited imagination becomes blurred. What follows is the fable of a woman's passionate, obsessed and violent response to anAfrica that will not heed her.

After years teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle-aged and twice divorced has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours; he is denounced and summoned before a committee of inquiry. Willing to admit his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicly, he resigns and retreats to daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding. For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. He and Lucy become victims of a savage and disturbing attack which brings into relief all the faultlines in their relationship.