In his first Booker Prize-winning novel, J.M. Coetzee sets his main character on an arduous physical journey, which becomes a quest for inner freedom.

In a South Africa torn by civil war, Michael K sets out to take his ailing mother back to her rural home. On the way there she dies, leaving him alone in an anarchic world of brutal roving armies. Imprisoned, Michael is unable to bear confinement and escapes, determined to live with dignity. This life-affirming novel illuminates the human experience: the need for an interior, spiritual life; for meaningful connections to the world in which we live; and for purity of vision.

Winner
The Booker Prize 1983
Published by
Secker & Warburg
Publication date
J.M. Coetzee

J.M. Coetzee

About the Author

J. M. Coetzee was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He is a multi-award-winning author, and was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature.
More about J.M. Coetzee

Other nominated books by J.M. Coetzee

The Schooldays of Jesus
Summertime
Slow Man
Elizabeth Costello
Disgrace
Prize winner