Elizabeth Costello is an Australian writer of international renown. Famous principally for an early novel that established her reputation, she has reached the stage where her remaining function is to be venerated and applauded. Her life has become a series of engagements in sterile conference rooms throughout the world - a private consciousness obliged to reveal itself to a curious public: the presentation of a major award at an American college where she is required to deliver a lecture; a sojourn as the writer in residence on a cruise liner; a visit to her sister, a missionary in Africa, who is receiving an honorary degree, an occasion which both recognise as the final opportunity for effecting some form of reconciliation; and a disquieting appearance at a writers' conference in Amsterdam where she finds the subject of her talk unexpectedly amongst the audience. She has made her life's work the study of other people yet now it is she who is the object of scrutiny. But, for her, what matters is the continuing search for a means of articulating her vision and the verdict of future generations.--'One of Coetzee's best-simply burns with creative passion' D. J. Taylor, Independent --'An important book-Extraordinary' Independent on Sunday--'Probably the best book on the (Booker) longlist, the one that will last-Every word counts. Every sentence lives' Evening Standard--'A readable and engaging book-Demanding, playful, provocative-hugely enlightening and rewarding' Sunday Times --'Richly rewarding' Daily Mail--'Highly readable and bracing' Scotsman--'Deals bravely with problems that few other writers dare to think about' Telegraph

Coetzee is a professor of general literature at the University of Cape Town. He has won many literary awards, including the CNA prize, South Africa's premier literary award (three times), the Booker Prize (twice), the Prix -tranger Femina, the Jerusalem Prize, the Lannan Literary Award and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize.