John Maxwell Coetzee

“Pain is truth—all else is subject to doubt.”

No one portrays the outsider better than J.M. Coetzee—who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. He was born in 1940 in Cape Town, South Africa and served as an academic on four continents. For Nadine Gordimer—“Coetzee’s vision goes to the nerve-center of being." 

His work conveys unrest—uncertainty—dismay. “Empire dooms itself to live in history and plot against history.”

We remain tone deaf to the tone of truth. “The crime that is latent in us we must inflict on ourselves.”

Coetzee’s novels include In the Heart of the Country, Waiting for the Barbarians, The Master of Petersburg, Disgrace, Youth, Diary of a Bad Year, Summertime, and The Childhood of Jesus.

“The jackal rips out the hare’s bowls—but the world rolls on.”

J. M. Coetzee lives in Adelaide, Australia.