First edition. Bookplate signed by author without inscription affixed to half-title page. Pages toned. 1990 Hard Cover. We have more books available by this author!. 180, [1] pp. 8vo. Coetzee received the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature, and is also a two-time recipient of the Booker Prize. Dying of cancer, Elizabeth Curren writes a testament to her lost daughter, now living in America. Her account describes her relationship with the tramp, Vercueil, who becomes her silent companion and confessor as she tries to make her peace with the world. The novel is an anguished lament for a country on the cusp of change and for all children lost to South Africa's age of iron.