A Book of Friends: In Honour of J. M. Coetzee on his 80th Birthday

A Book of Friends is a collection of essays, stories, poems and artworks compiled in honour of J. M. Coetzee on his eightieth birthday. It includes contributions from some of Coetzee’s friends and contemporaries, and is edited by Dorothy Driver, his partner over the past four decades.

Stretching from the Americas to South Africa to Australia, A Book of Friends pays homage to friendship, literature and the work of one of the most extraordinary writers of our time.

J. M. Coetzee was the first author to win the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. His work includes Waiting for the Barbarians, Life and Times of Michael K, The Master of Petersburg, Disgrace and Diary of a Bad Year.

prDorothy Driver taught for many years at the University of Cape Town, where she is now Professor Emeritus. She has had visiting teaching positions at the University of Chicago and Stanford University. From 2005 to 2016 she held a professorship in the Discipline of English and Creative Writing, Adelaide University, where she now has visiting researcher status. Her research is primarily in the field of English South African literature.

‘Coetzee is the most radical shapeshifter alive.’ Australian

‘Freed from literary convention, Mr Coetzee writes not to provide answers, but to ask great questions.’ Economist