Book Review: Disgrace by J M Coetzee

J M Coetzee's 1999 Booker-winning novel about the often brutal life in South Africa is deservedly one of the major influences on his endowment of the Nobel prize. The story takes place in Cape Town and on the Eastern Cape and revolves around a university professor his later-life sexual encounters and the grissly side of African life. But it is also a message about the sociohistorical legacy of European settlement and it's fallout. Delicately written with many levels and intricacies, this is one of the best novels I have read for a long time. A detailed and wonderfully designed piece of work, describing the brutality of African settlement with the most brutal aspects of the European legacy. An excellent read.