Here and Now: Letters (2008-2011)
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Authors: Paul Auster,J. M. Coetzee
Here and Now: Letters (2008-2011)
Paul Auster J. M. Coetzee
Viking (2013)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: Literary Collections, Letters, General, American, Literary Criticism, African
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The high-spirited correspondence between
New York Times
bestselling author Paul Auster and Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee
Although Paul Auster and J. M. Coetzee had been reading each other’s books for years, the two writers did not meet until February 2008. Not long after, Auster received a letter from Coetzee, suggesting they begin exchanging letters on a regular basis and, “God willing, strike sparks off each other.”
Here and Now
is the result of that proposal: the epistolary dialogue between two great writers who became great friends. Over three years their letters touched on nearly every subject, from sports to fatherhood, film festivals to incest, philosophy to politics, from the financial crisis to art, death, family, marriage, friendship, and love.
Their correspondence offers an intimate and often amusing portrait of these two men as they explore the complexities of the here and now and is a reflection of two sharp intellects whose pleasure in each other’s friendship is apparent on every page.
**
ALSO BY PAUL AUSTER
The Invention of Solitude
The New York Trilogy
In the Country of Last Things
Moon Palace
The Music of Chance
Leviathan
Mr. Vertigo
Smoke & Blue in the Face
Hand to Mouth
Lulu on the Bridge
Timbuktu
The Book of Illusions
Collected Poems
The Red Notebook
Oracle Night
Collected Prose
The Brooklyn Follies
Travels in the Scriptorium
The Inner Life of Martin Frost
Man in the Dark
Invisible
Sunset Park
Winter Journal
ALSO BY J. M. COETZEE
Dusklands
In the Heart of the Country
Waiting for the Barbarians
Life & Times of Michael K
Foe
White Writing
Age of Iron
Doubling the Point: Essays and Interviews
The Master of Petersburg
Giving Offense
Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life
The Lives of Animals
Disgrace
Stranger Shores: Essays 1986–1999
Youth
Elizabeth Costello
Slow Man
Inner Workings
Diary of a Bad Year
Summertime
VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
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New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
For more information about the Penguin Group visit penguin.com
First published in 2013 by Viking Penguin,
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Copyright © Paul Auster, 2013.
Copyright © J. M. Coetzee, 2013.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed
or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Auster, Paul, 1947–
Here and now : letters (2008-2011) / Paul Auster and J. M. Coetzee.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-101-60627-8
1. Auster, Paul, 1947—Correspondence. 2. Authors, American—20th century—Correspondence. 3. Coetzee, J. M., 1940—Correspondence. 4. Authors, South African—20th century—Correspondence. I. Coetzee, J. M., 1940– II. Title.
PS3551.U77Z48 2013
816'.54—dc23
2012039755
Contents
Hôtel d’Aubusson, Paris, January 10, 2009
Contents
Hôtel d’Aubusson, Paris, January 10, 2009
HERE AND NOW
July 14–15, 2008
Dear Paul,
I have been thinking about friendships, how they arise, why they last—some of them—so long, longer than the passional attachments of which they are sometimes (wrongly) considered to be pale imitations. I was about to write a letter to you about all of this, starting with the observation that, considering how important friendships are in social life, and how much they mean to us, particularly during childhood, it is surprising how little has been written on the subject.