The Pole and Other Stories by J.M. Coetzee

In this beautifully written and compulsively readable story of love and the mutability of human relationships, pianist Witold's infatuation with Beatriz will change them both.

A Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph and Financial Times Book of the Year

‘Confirms Coetzee as one of the great writers of fiction’ Observer

After his piano recital in Barcelona, Witold Walczykiewicz – white-haired virtuoso, controversial interpreter of Chopin – becomes infatuated with Beatriz, his designated companion at dinner. Beatriz, a stylish patron of the arts, is at first unmoved. But as the stranger’s letters, music, and poetry flood into her home, a dream of love begins that surprises them both.

‘One of the world’s most original writers… He is still breaking new ground at the same time as revealing a funny side’ i

‘His prose, apparently simple, is so perfected at every turn that it is moving to read, line after line’ Sunday Times