Disgrace

AUTHOR: J M Coetzee

After years of teachng Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle-aged  and twice divorced. has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours; he is denounced and summoned before a committee of inquiry. Willing to admit his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicly, he resigns and retreats to his daughter Lucy’s isolated smallholding.

For a time, his duaghter’s influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. He and Lucy become victims of a savage attack which brings into relief all the faultines in their relationship.