In this mesmerising allegorical tale, J.M. Coetzee deftly grapples with the big questions of growing up, and what it means to be a ‘parent’
Summertime
Written by J.M. Coetzee
- Shortlisted
- The Man Booker Prize 2009
- Published by Harvill Secker
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Sometimes heart-breaking, often funny, Summertime completes J.M. Coetzee’s majestic trilogy of fictionalised memoir, begun with Boyhood and Youth
J.M. Coetzee’s (entirely fictional) English biographer gradually reveals an unflattering portrait of the young Coetzee as an awkward, bookish individual with little talent for opening himself to others. Within the family he’s regarded as an outsider, someone who tried to flee the tribe and has now returned, chastened. His insistence on doing manual work, his long hair and beard and (most damning) the rumours that he writes poetry - all evoke nothing but suspicion in the South Africa of the time.
J.M. Coetzee
J.M. Coetzee is a multi-award-winning author, and was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature
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J.M. Coetzee became the first author to win the Booker twice with this tale set in post-apartheid South Africa, where a professor’s complacency contributes to his utter downfall
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