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J M Coetzee

(John Maxwell Coetzee)
South Africa (b.1940)

JM Coetzee's work includes Waiting For The Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K, Boyhood: Scenes From Provincial Life, Youth, and Disgrace which won the Booker Prize, making him the first author to have won it twice.

Awards: Nobel (2003), Booker (1999), James Tait Black (1980) see all

Genres: Literary Fiction

New and upcoming books

May 2025

Speaking in Tongues

Series

Scenes from Provincial Life
   1. Boyhood (1997)
   2. Youth (2002)
   3. Summertime (2009)

Jesus
   1. The Childhood of Jesus (2013)
   2. The Schooldays of Jesus (2016)
   3. The Death of Jesus (2020)

Novels

   In the Heart of the Country (1977)
   Waiting for the Barbarians (1980)
   The Life and Times of Michael K (1983)
   Foe (1986)
   Age of Iron (1990)
   The Master of Petersburg (1994)
   The Lives of Animals (1999)
   Disgrace (1999)
   Elizabeth Costello (2003)
   Slow Man (2005)
   Diary of a Bad Year (2007)

Collections

   Dusklands (1974)
   Landscape with Rowers (poems) (2003)
   The Pole (2023)

Anthologies edited

   A Land Apart (1986) (with André Brink)
   New Writing from Africa 2009 (2009)
   African Pens 2011 (2011)
   African Compass (2024)

Non fiction show

Books containing stories by J M Coetzee

Gods and Soldiers (2009)
The Penguin Anthology of Contemporary African Writing
edited by
Rob Spillman

Awards

	2003 Nobel Prize in Literature
	1999 Booker Prize : Disgrace
	1983 Booker Prize : The Life and Times of Michael K
	1980 James Tait Black Memorial Prize : Waiting for the Barbarians

Award nominations

	2016 Booker Prize (longlist) : The Schooldays of Jesus
	2009 Booker Prize (shortlist) : Summertime
	2007 Dublin Literary Award (nominee) : Slow Man
	2005 Booker Prize (longlist) : Slow Man
	2003 Booker Prize (longlist) : Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons
	1999 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction (nominee) : Disgrace
	1991 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (nominee) : Age of Iron

J M Coetzee recommends

Get 'em Young, Treat 'em Tough, Tell 'em Nothing (2022)
Robin McLean
"Not since Faulkner have i read American prose so bristling with life and particularity."

The New Adventures of Helen (2021)
Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
"In her best work Petrushevskaya steers a sure course between neutrally recording the degraded life of the Soviet-era urban underclass and ratcheting up the squalor of that life for the mere pleasure of it. She does so by the steadiness of her moral compass and the gaiety of her prose."

Whoever Fears the Sea (2021)
Justin Fox
"A fast-paced tale of sailing-ship adventures."

To the Volcano (2019)
Elleke Boehmer
"With passion and intelligence, and rare moral insight, Elleke Boehmer traces the scars left on the psyche by the tortuous histories of the south."

The Other Americans (2019)
Laila Lalami
"This deftly constructed account of a crime and its consequences shows up, in its quiet way, the pressures under which ordinary Americans have labored since the events of 9/11."

A Mouthful of Birds (2019)
Samanta Schweblin
"The Grimm brothers and Franz Kafka pay a visit to Argentina in Samanta Schweblin's darkly humorous tales of people who have slipped through cracks or fallen down holes into alternate realities."

In the Distance With You (2018)
Carla Guelfenbein
"Subtle, clearsighted, and compassionate."

Forest Dark (2017)
Nicole Krauss
"Charming, tender, and wholly original."

Inside (2012)
Alix Ohlin
"A skillful storyteller . . . attractively quick-witted and wry."

The Vera Wright Trilogy (2010)
(Vera Wright Trilogy)
Elizabeth Jolley
"The Vera Wright Trilogy stands out as the most ambitious and most accomplished work in Elizabeth Jolley's oeuvre."

The One That Got Away (2008)
Zoë Wicomb
"Zoë Wicomb's new stories combine the coolly interrogative gaze of the outsider with an insider's intimate warmth."

The Twin (2008)
Gerbrand Bakker
"A novel of restrained tenderness and laconic humour."

The Cellist of Sarajevo (2008)
Steven Galloway
"A gripping story of Sarajevo under siege."

God's Own Country (2008)
Ross Raisin
"Ross Raisin’s story of how a disturbed but basically well-intentioned rural youngster turns into a malevolent sociopath is both chilling in its effect and convincing in its execution."

For the Sake of Silence (2008)
Michael Cawood Green
"A work of history cum fiction that will grip and sometimes amaze the reader."

Muck (2007)
Craig Sherborne
"Mordantly true to life...one of the most interesting autobiographical projects currently on the go."

In the Country of Men (2006)
Hisham Matar
"A poignant story of a child exposed too early to the brutalities of Libyan politics."

Inside (2006)
Kenneth J Harvey
"An extravagantly haunted imagination."

Crossways (2004)
Sheila Kohler
"There is a territory - fictional and psychological - that Sheila Kohler has now marked as her own. I am full of admiration."

The Apothecary's Daughter (2004)
Patricia Schonstein
"A richly romantic tale of sexual awakening and betrayal."

The Man of Feeling (2003)
Javier Marías
"Javier Mariás is in my opinion one of the best contemporary writers."

The City of Sealions (2002)
Eva Sallis
"A rich book - a lyrical account of a girl's growth and self-discovery, and at the same time a deeply sympathetic exploration of Muslim culture."

The Wedding (2001)
Imraan Coovadia
"A tender love story rendered in prose of dazzling comic wizardry."

Half a Life (2001)
V S Naipaul
"Naipaul is a master of English prose and the prose of Half a Life is as clean and cold as a knife."

Beyond Sleep (1966)
W F Hermans
"A comedy of worldly disengagement trembling on the edge of tragedy, all the more hilarious for being related in Hermans' best poker-faced mariner."

The Tanners (1907)
Robert Walser
"Unforgettable, heart-rending."

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