Anniversary edition 25 years since the first publication of the book

Professor David Lurie is a divorced fifty-something who feels desire but not passion. When his relationship with a student causes a scandal, he loses his job, his friends distance themselves from him, and his ex-wife ridicules him.

David retreats to his daughter's isolated farm, and his visit extends as he tries to find meaning in this relationship, the only one left to him. But harsh reality invades the farm one day through an incident of unimaginable violence. David is unable to protect his daughter or even understand her, just as he struggles to comprehend this new world, so different from what he knew and believed...

A great novel set against the backdrop of tumultuous post-apartheid South Africa, with which J.M. Coetzee became the first writer to win the Booker Prize twice.

A small excerpt from the book:

“Aren't you afraid being alone?”

Lucy shrugs. “I have the dogs. It's something. The more dogs you have, the more they fear you. Anyway, if thieves come, I don’t think it will make a difference if they find one person here or two.”

“That's quite philosophical.”

“Yes. When everything else goes to hell, you turn to philosophy.”

“But you have a gun.”

“I have a rifle. I’ll show you. I bought it from a neighbor. I’ve never used it, but it’s here.”

“Great. An armed philosopher. I approve.”

Dogs and a gun, bread in the oven and crops. Strange that he and her mother, people of the city, intellectuals, brought this remnant of the past to life, this young, sturdy settler. But perhaps they did not give birth to her; perhaps history played a larger role.