The Pole and Other Stories

The novella headlining this collection is the tale of a halting love affair between a Polish pianist and Beatriz, a married Spanish socialite, which takes place across different languages and lifestyles. In tandem with the other stories, which feature Coetzee’s recurring character Elizabeth Costello, it can be read as a grappling with time’s inevitability, and with the way impending death flavours the way we think about life. All of which is to reduce a marvellous, sparsely written book to a few banalities. As always with Coetzee, a richness of meaning rewards the receptive reader.