A new collection of essays and literary criticism from Nobel Prize winner J. M. Coetzee

In addition to being one of the most acclaimed and accomplished fiction writers in the world, J. M. Coetzee is also a literary critic of the highest caliber. As Derek Attridge observes in his illuminating introduction, reading Coetzee’s nonfiction offers one the opportunity to see “how an author at the forefront of his profession engages with his peers, not as a critic from the outside, but as one who works with the same raw materials.” In this collection of twenty recent pieces, Coetzee examines the work of some of the twentieth century’s greatest writers—from Samuel Beckett and Günter Grass to Gabriel García Márquez and Philip Roth. Brilliantly insightful, challenging, yet accessible, these essays demonstrate Coetzee’s sharp eye and unwavering critical acumen and will be of interest to his many fans as well as to all readers of international literature.