The Pole and Other Stories

by Coetzee, J.M.

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published 17/10/2024 by Vintage Publishing (Vintage) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 272 pages

In this beautifully written and compulsively readable story of love and the mutability of human relationships, pianist Witold's infatuation with Beatriz will change them both.

A Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph and Financial Times Book of the Year‘Confirms Coetzee as one of the great writers of fiction’ ObserverAfter his piano recital in Barcelona, Witold Walczykiewicz – white-haired virtuoso, controversial interpreter of Chopin – becomes infatuated with Beatriz, his designated companion at dinner. Beatriz, a stylish patron of the arts, is at first unmoved. But as the stranger’s letters, music, and poetry flood into her home, a dream of love begins that surprises them both.

‘One of the world’s most original writers… He is still breaking new ground at the same time as revealing a funny side’ i‘His prose, apparently simple, is so perfected at every turn that it is moving to read, line after line’ Sunday Times