ABOUT THE BOOK

David Lurie, middle-aged and twice divorced, is a scholar fallen into disgrace. After years of teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, he 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 an isolated smallholding owned by his daughter Lucy.

For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. He helps with the dogs in the kennels, takes produce to market, and assists with treating injured animals at a nearby refuge. 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. Chilling, uncompromising and forgettable, Disgrace is a masterpiece.

J. M. Coetzee is Professor of General Literature at the University of Cape Town. He is the author of seven novels, most recently The Master of Petersburg, and of the memoir Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life.

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Here are some readers' comments on Disgrace:

"This work has already won the Booker Prize and must be a strong contender for the IMPAC Award.

The novel is set in South Africa and the entire story narrated by the main protagonist, David Lurie. Lurie is twice divorced and a lover of women. When he is found to be having an affair with one of his young students, he leaves town in disgrace. Lurie would appear to live by the maxim "never complain and never explain". He makes no attempt to defend his actions, accepts the consequences and resigns his post. He decides to spend some time with his daughter Lucy who lives alone in a remote settlement where she runs a kennel and grows flowers and vegetables. The situation between father and daughter becomes strained after a vicious break-in by three black men when Lucy is raped and David severely injured.

Coetzee brilliantly conveys the tensions which can exist between black and white South Africans, their fears and their loyalties. All characters are finely drawn and the gentle pace of the narrative makes it an absorbing read.

(A member of Raheny Library Reading Group.)

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"This is a powerful book. Set in present day South Africa we meet Professor David Lurie, world weary, self-mocking, head of communications at Cape Technical University. He is twice divorced, has an adult daughter, Lucy who has retreated to the country, growing vegetables, flowers and doing craftwork. At 52 years he is still, as he puts it, clinging to his place at "...the sweet banquet of the senses", and herein lies his downfall. He becomes involved with one of his students and the affair is deemed to constitute sexual abuse and harassment. The episode leads to his resignation and he leaves the university in disgrace. His first refuge is his daughter in her seeming peaceful pastoral retreat, the antithesis of artificial urban life. However, the idyll is soon shattered when there is an attack on father and daughter in their home. Lucy refuses to report the incident much to her father's anger and distress and this conflict remains unresolved.

The book has a number of themes. In minor key there is David's sense of the onset of old age, a scholar manque, a life unfulfilled spent teaching a subject he doesn't care about to students who just don't care. There is also the overkill of political correctness for a relatively minor sexual indiscretion at the university contrasted with the hopelessness of seeking public acknowledgement and punishment for the crime committed against Lucy. Overriding everything is the undertow of racial tension in present day South Africa. David still feels that the rules of objective justice should be pursued; Lucy on the other hand sees that the only way she can continue to remain on the land (for her the only life) is to submit, merging with the landscape and people.

The book sweeps you along and gives much more than a glimpse of present day South Africa, with its diverse values, its beautiful landscape and casual violence. Shocking, but rewarding and must surely make the IMPAC Dublin short list."

Reader: Raheny Library Group.