The Pole and Other Stories
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:17th Oct '24
£9.99
This title is due to be published on 17th October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£20.00(9781787304055)
The Pole tells the story of Witold Walczykiewicz, a vigorous, white-haired pianist who becomes infatuated with Beatriz, a stylish patron of the arts, after she helps organize his Barcelona concert.
Although Beatriz, who is married, is initially unimpressed by Wittold, she soon finds herself pursued and ineluctably swept into his world. As he sends her letters, extends countless invitations to travel, and even visits her husband's summer home in Mallorca, their unlikely relationship blossoms, though only on her terms.
As the power struggle between them intensifies -- Is it Beatriz who limits their passion by controlling her emotions? Or is it Witold, trying to force into life his dream of love? Evocative of Joyce's 'The Dead,' The Pole is a haunting work, evoking the 'inexhaustible palette of sensations, from blind love to compassion' (El País) typical of Coetzee's finest novels.
If The Pole and Other Stories were his [Coetzee's] final work, it would be astonishing... Beneath plain-spoken surfaces unexpected depths are often revealed, glinting with flashes of playful seriousness, humour, and grand, existential strangeness * Guardian *
[In this] late-in-life collection by the South African master… not a phrase [is] wasted, everything sharp and back-to-the-bone * Financial Times, *Books of the Year* *
[A] blend of languor and heartache… a fittingly warm farewell * Daily Telegraph, *Books of the Year* *
Perhaps the greatest novelist alive… Coetzee’s prose, apparently simple, is so perfected at every turn that it is moving to read, line after line * Sunday Times, *Books of the Year* *
The Pole is one of the best books of the year by any author of any age, exhibiting not the slightest diminution in his powers… here is not a sentence that is difficult to understand, and yet the book provokes thought and wonder on every page * Critic, *Books of the Year* *
ISBN: 9781529920635
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 15mm
Weight: 200g
208 pages