-- There is more than one copy of the book on my bookshelf --

Synopsis (credit: back cover)

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.

Longlist: Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2003.
On the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List.

(Bought second-hand at Well Read Books, Cape Town.)

The book forms part of my permanent collection.

"Seated at one of the pavement tables she briskly composes what is to be her statement. 'I am a writer, a trader in fictions,' it says. 'I maintain beliefs only provisionally: fixed beliefs would stand in my way. I change beliefs as I change my habitation or my clothes, according to my needs. On these grounds — professional, vocational — I request exemption from a rule of which I now hear for the first time, namely that every petitioner at the gate should hold to one or more beliefs.'

"She takes her statement back to the guardhouse. As she half expected, it is rejected. The man at the desk does not refer it to a higher authority, apparently it does not deserve that, merely shakes his head and lets the page fall to the floor and pushes a fresh sheet of paper towards her. 'What you believe,' he says."

I have read several books authored by JM Coetzee. While I could marvel at his skill with most of them, this one had the additional bonus that I fully enjoyed the bulk of it. The dialogue and discourse are topical and keep the reader on its toes throughout.

For the discerning reader or student, I understand there is a further level of philosophical engagement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Costello). Missing that does not distract from the reading experience.