A divorced, middle-aged English professor finds himself increasingly
unable to resist affairs with his female students. When discovered by the
college authorities, he is expected to apologise and repent in an effort to
save his job, but he refuses to become a scapegoat in what he see as as a
show trial designed to reinforce a stringent political correctness. He
preempts the authorities and leaves his job, and the city, to spend time
with his grown-up lesbian daughter on her remote farm. Things between them
are strained - there is much from the past they need to reconcile - and the
situation becomes critical when they are the victims of a brutal and
horrifying attack. In spectacularly powerful and lucid prose, Coetzee uses
all his formidable skills to engage with a post-apartheid culture in
unexpected and revealing ways. This examination into the sexual and
politcal lawlines of modern South Africa as it tries desperately to start a
fresh page in its history is chilling, uncompromising and unforgettable.