Author | J. M. Coetzee |
---|---|
Language | English |
Publisher | Liveright |
Publication date | September 19, 2023 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
Pages | 176 |
ISBN | 9781324093862 |
OCLC | 1398511342 |
Preceded by | The Death of Jesus |
The Pole and Other Stories is a 2023 book by J. M. Coetzee. In the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada it was published as the novella "The Pole" along with five stories that were written over the previous two decades. [1] [2]
In the United States it was published as a stand-alone novel, titled The Pole, and did not include the five "appended" stories.
The novel (or novella) [1] The Pole centres around a Polish pianist, 72 year-old Witold Walczykiewicz, who is invited to Barcelona, Spain to perform. There he meets middle-aged Beatriz, with whom he begins to correspond after returning to Poland. Witold eventually travels to Mallorca, where Beatriz's husband has a summer home, to be with her. [3] [4]
All but one of the additional five stories collected alongside “The Pole” (in some published editions), centre around the character of Elizabeth Costello, [5] a character who has appeared before in Coetzee's work and is sometimes described as Coetzee’s own alter ego. [1] The four Elizabeth Costello stories are: “As a Woman Grows Older", "The Old Woman and the Cats", "The Glass Abattoir", and "Hope". The fifth story, "The Dog", first appeared in 2018 as "El Perro" in a "Spanish-language edition of Coetzee's stories titled Siete Cuentos Morales (Seven Moral Tales)." [6]
Upon release, The Pole and Other Stories was generally well-received. According to Book Marks , the book received "positive" reviews based on twelve critic reviews, with five being "rave" and five being "positive" and two being "mixed". [7] Globally, the work was received generally well, with Complete Review saying on the consensus: "Not his best, but a solid late work." [8]
The Pole was first published in a Spanish translation by Mariana Dimópoulos under the title El Polaco by the Argentinian publisher El Hilo de Ariadna. [9] [3] This was Coetzee's third book whose initial publication was in the Southern Hemisphere. Coetzee explains that this is deliberate on his part because "the symbolism of publishing in the South before the North is important to me". [9]
The Pole was also his second book to originally appear in Spanish translation. Coetzee says the Spanish translation of the novel provides a more accurate portrayal of his objectives than the English. [4] An English edition was published in July, 2023. [6] [10]
Don Quixote, the full title being The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615. Considered a founding work of Western literature, it is often said to be the first modern novel. The novel has been labelled by many well-known authors as the "best book of all time" and the "best and most central work in world literature". Don Quixote is also one of the most-translated books in the world and one of the best-selling novels of all time.
John Maxwell Coetzee FRSL OMG is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language. He has won the Booker Prize (twice), the CNA Literary Award (thrice), the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina étranger, and The Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and holds a number of other awards and honorary doctorates.
Disgrace is a novel by J. M. Coetzee, published in 1999. It won the Booker Prize. The writer was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature four years after its publication.
Roberto Bolaño Ávalos was a Chilean novelist, short-story writer, poet and essayist. In 1999, Bolaño won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel Los detectives salvajes, and in 2008 he was posthumously awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for his novel 2666, which was described by board member Marcela Valdes as a "work so rich and dazzling that it will surely draw readers and scholars for ages". The New York Times described him as "the most significant Latin American literary voice of his generation".
Michael Kohlhaas is a novella by the German author Heinrich von Kleist, based on a 16th-century story of Hans Kohlhase. Kleist published fragments of the work in volume 6 of his literary journal Phöbus in June 1808. The complete work was published in the first volume of Kleist's Erzählungen (novellas) in 1810.
Javier Marías Franco was a Spanish author, translator, and columnist. Marías published fifteen novels, including A Heart So White and Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me. In addition to his novels, he also published three collections of short stories and various essays. As one of Spain's most celebrated novelists, his books have been translated into forty-six languages and sold close to nine million copies internationally. He received several awards for his work, such as the Rómulo Gallegos Prize (1995), the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (1997), the International Nonino Prize (2011), and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature (2011).
Elizabeth Costello is a 2003 novel by South African-born Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee.
Rosa Montero Gayo is a Spanish journalist and author of contemporary fiction.
Slow Man is a novel by the South-African writer J.M. Coetzee and concerns a man who must learn to adapt after losing a leg in a road accident. The novel has many varied themes, including the nature of care, the relationship between an author and his characters, and man's drive to leave a legacy. It was Coetzee's first novel since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. The novel was longlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize.
Alonso Cueto Caballero is a Peruvian author, university professor and newspaper columnist.
"Before the Law" is a short story by Czech writer Franz Kafka. It was printed twice during Kafka's life, but is best known as an embedded narrative in the posthumously published novel The Trial. "Before the Law" is described as a deliberately obscure parable or allegory on legal bureaucracy and the seeking of justice, reflecting the absurdist views on the subject expressed by Kafka in The Trial.
Andrés Neuman is an Argentine writer, poet, translator, columnist and blogger.
Foe is a 1986 novel by South African-born Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. Woven around the existing plot of Robinson Crusoe, Foe is written from the perspective of Susan Barton, a castaway who landed on the same island inhabited by "Cruso" and Friday as their adventures were already underway. Like Robinson Crusoe, it is a frame story, unfolded as Barton's narrative while in England attempting to convince the writer Daniel Foe to help transform her tale into popular fiction. Focused primarily on themes of language and power, the novel was the subject of criticism in South Africa, where it was regarded as politically irrelevant on its release. Coetzee revisited the composition of Robinson Crusoe in 2003 in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
The Death of Jesus is a 2019 novel by J. M. Coetzee.
Summertime is a 2009 novel by South African-born Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. It is the third and final instalment of Scenes from Provincial Life, a series of fictionalized memoirs by Coetzee and details the life of one John Coetzee from the perspective of five people who have known him.
The Lives of Animals (1999) is a metafictional novella about animal rights by the South African novelist J. M. Coetzee, recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. The work is introduced by Amy Gutmann and followed by a collection of responses by Marjorie Garber, Peter Singer, Wendy Doniger and Barbara Smuts. It was published by Princeton University Press as part of its Human Values series.
The Childhood of Jesus is a 2013 novel by South African-born Australian Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee.
The Blue Hour is a 2005 novel by Peruvian novelist Alonso Cueto. It won the Premio Herralde de Novela for Spanish-language novels in 2006. The English translation, by Frank Wynne, was published in 2012, and won the 2013 Premio Valle-Inclán; it was shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize in the same year.
The Schooldays of Jesus is a 2016 novel by J. M. Coetzee. In July 2016, it was longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize.
J. M. Coetzee is a South African-born novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He has also won the Booker Prize twice, the Jerusalem Prize, CNA Prize (thrice), the Prix Femina étranger, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, as well as many other awards and honours, and he holds a number of honorary doctorates and is one of the most acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language.