"Desgraça" de Coetzee incluído na lista dos 100 melhores romances

Desgraça, publicado em 1999 e com edição portuguesa pela Dom Quixote,  do autor prémio Nobel sul africano J.M. Coetzee, está incluído nos 100 melhores romances indicados pelo jornal The Guardian. Adaptado ao cinema (2008), o livro conta a história de um professor acusado de assédio sexual que abandona a profissão e visita a filha na quinta onde mora sozinha e onde o pai estará condenado à impotência, perante um crime brutal que muda as suas vidas para sempre.

At first, there is hope. Country life in the eastern Cape, and Lucy’s company, seem to offer the prospect of sanity. But the conflicts of South Africa will never go away. The farm is attacked by a gang of black men, Lucy is raped, and Lurie beaten up. His daughter refuses to press charges, even though one of her assailants is a former “dog man” on the property. The novel ends on a note of utter bleakness. Lurie resolves to stay on the farm to protect his daughter, a domestic act of love by a broken man in search of redemption but almost too confused to know where to find it. Everyone, Coetzee seems to be saying, is a victim. Somewhere, the shade of Samuel Beckett must be smiling.

Texto de Robert McCrum no The Guardian

O filme, realizado por Steve Jacobs, é protagonizado por John Malcovich: