Diary of a Bad Year

Diary of a Bad Year

First edition
Author	J. M. Coetzee
Country	Australia
Language	English
Publisher	Text Publishing
Publication date	3 September 2007
Media type	Print
Pages	304pp
ISBN	1-921145-63-3
OCLC	174094405

Diary of a Bad Year is a book by South African-born Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. It was released by Text Publishing in Australia on 3 September 2007, in the United Kingdom by Harvill Secker (an imprint of Random House) on 6 September, and in the United States on 27 December.

Plot summary

The protagonist, called Señor C. by the other characters, is an aging South African writer living in Sydney. The novel consists of his essays and musings alongside diary entries by both Señor C. and Anya, a neighbor whom he has hired as a typist. The essays, which take up the larger part of each page, are on wide-ranging topics, including the politics of George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Guantanamo Bay, and terrorism. The diary entries appear beneath the essays and describe the relationship that develops between the two characters, a relationship that ultimately leads to subtle evolutions in both their worldviews.

Awards and nominations

• New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, 2008: shortlisted
• The Age Book of the Year Award, Fiction Prize, 2008: shortlisted
• Victorian Premier's Literary Award, The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, 2008: shortlisted
• Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Best Fiction Book, 2008: shortlisted
• Australia-Asia Literary Award, 2008: longlisted^[1]

Extracts

• Extract from The New York Review of Books
• Extract from The Guardian

Reviews

• Riemer, Andrew (2007-08-24). "Diary of a Bad Year". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2007-10-25. 
• Mukherjee, Neel (2007-09-01). "Diary of a Bad Year". The Times (London). Retrieved 2007-10-25. 
• Gee, Maggie (2007-09-02). "Diary of a Bad Year". The Sunday Times (London). Retrieved 2007-10-25. 
• Cartwright, Justin (2007-09-02). "Diary of a Bad Year, by J M Coetzee". The Independent. Retrieved 2007-10-25. 
• Sen, Aveek (2007-10-04). "Señor C - At the gateway to oblivion". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2007-10-25. 

References

1. ↑ Australia-Asia Literary Award 2008

External links

• Diary of a Bad Year at booksatrandom

Works by J. M. Coetzee Novels Dusklands (1974) In the Heart of the Country (1977) Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) Life & Times of Michael K (1983) Foe (1986) Age of Iron (1990) The Master of Petersburg (1994) The Lives of Animals (1999) Disgrace (1999) Elizabeth Costello (2003) The Nobel Lecture in Literature, 2003: "He and His Man" (2004) Slow Man (2005) Diary of a Bad Year (2007) The Childhood of Jesus (2013) "Autrebiography" Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life (1997) Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II (2002) Summertime (2009) Criticism and Letters Truth in Autobiography (1984) White Writing: On the Culture of Letters in South Africa (1988) Doubling the Point: Essays and Interviews (1992) Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship (1996) Stranger Shores: Literary Essays, 1986–1999 (2001) Inner Workings: Literary Essays, 2000–2005 (2007) Here and Now: Letters, 2008-2011 (2013) Film & TV adaptations Dust (1985) The Lives of Animals (2002) Disgrace (2008)