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Introduction by Peter Goldsworthy

She pouts. I was expecting more of a story, she says. It is difficult to get into the swing when the subject keeps changing.

An ageing writer fills his journal: he has opinions about everything. He is challenged by Anya, the smart, irreverent young woman he hires to type his notes. Anya’s boyfriend scorns the writer and schemes against him.

With its three simultaneous voices, Diary of a Bad Year is not only a novel about loneliness, friendship and the possibility of love, it changes the logic of reading itself.

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J. M. Coetzee was the first author to win the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. His work includes Waiting for the Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K, The Master of Petersburg, Disgrace and Diary of a Bad Year. His most recent writing is a trilogy of novels: The Childhood of Jesus, The Schooldays of...