Disgrace

by J.M. Coetzee

1999 · literary fiction

Set in 2 places · 1 primary
Sense of Place
5/5
Description · Open Library (CC0)

At fifty-two, Professor David Lurie is divorced, filled with desire, but lacking in passion. An affair with one of his students leaves him jobless, shunned by his friends, and ridiculed by his ex-wife. He retreats to his daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding, where a brief visit becomes an extended stay as he tries to find meaning from the one remaining relationship. David attempts to relate to Lucy and to a society with new racial complexities are disrupted by an afternoon of violence that shakes all of his beliefs and threatens to destroy his daughter. In this wry, visceral, yet strangely tender novel, Coetzee once again tells "truths [that] cut to the bone" (The New York Times Book Review).

Set in

  • Cape Town · South Africa
    Lurie's academic downfall
    ★ primary
  • Salem, Eastern Cape · South Africa
    Lucy's farm, assault aftermath

Also set in Cape Town

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