The Pole is a short novel about Witold, a distinguished Polish pianist in his seventies, who travels to Barcelona to give a recital. There he meets Beatriz, a wealthy woman who helps organise the concert series. He is drawn to her, and a delicate, awkward relationship grows between them.
The two come from different cultures and speak in different languages, and their closeness is shaped by music, manners and misunderstanding. The book is a spare, ironic study of late-life desire, art and the limits of communication, written with Coetzee's characteristic restraint.
Quotes
Would you agree that Francis had a bit of a reputation? Did he sometimes exhibit unpredictable moods? Would you agree, Michael, that your brother possessed a history of violence?
So when you climbed, he said, you had to go careful. You had to watch your older brother and follow close his moves. You had to think back on every step before you took it. Remembering hard the whole way up. ... "And if you can’t memory right," he said, "you lose."
Always, there were stories on TV and in the papers of gangs, killings in bad neighborhoods, predators roaming close. One morning, I peered with Francis into a newspaper box to read a headline about the latest terror and caught in the glass the reflection of our own faces.
I return to Mother's stretcher, and she's sitting up now, wearing a hospital gown as neatly as she can make it seem. When she reads my face, she smooths her hair, sits up straight, the paper beneath her making soft crinkling sounds. "It is a new day," she says firmly.