An old woman is dying of cancer in Cape Town. A classics professor, Mrs Curren has always been opposed to the brutality of apartheid, but has lived insulated from its true horrors. Now she is suddenly forced to come to terms with the iron-hearted rage that the system has wrought. In an extended letter addressed to her daughter, who has long since fled to America, Mrs Curren recounts the strange events of her dying days. She witnesses the burning of a nearby black township; discovers the bullet-riddled body of her servant's son, and a teenage black activist hiding in her house, who is killed by security forces. And through it all, her only companion is a homeless man, an alcoholic who appears on her doorstep. J M Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003.

J.M.库切：1940年生于南非开普敦，荷兰裔移民后代。成长于南非种族隔离政策逐渐成形并盛行的年代。1960年他离开南非赴伦敦，从事电脑软件设计。1965年到美国攻读文学博士，毕业后在纽约州立大学做教授。1971年回到南非，在开普敦大学英文系任教。2002年移居澳大利亚。小说《等待野蛮人》(1980)一出版，即摘取费柏纪念奖、布莱克纪念奖，为库切贏得了国际声誉。《迈克尔·K的生活和时代》(1983)出版当年就赢得英语文学界最高荣誉——英国布克奖。《耻》1999年再度获布克奖，使库切成为唯一的一位两次获该奖项的作家。1994年出版的《彼得堡的大师》获得爱尔兰时报国际小说奖。《男孩》(1997)和《青春》(2002)是自传体小说，披露他生活中不为人所知的一面。其他重要作品还有《幽暗之地》(1974)、《内陆深处》(1977)、《福》(1986)、《伊丽莎白·科斯特洛：八堂课》(2003)、《慢人》(2005)等。库切的每一部作品风格完全不同，意义多元。他是英语文学中获奖最多的作家之一，除了以上提到的奖项，还获得过法国费米那奖、美国普利策奖、2000年英联邦作家奖等。2003年库切荣膺诺贝尔文学奖。