Disgrace (Man Booker 1999 & Commonwealth 2000)

After years teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle - aged and twice divorced, has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours; he is denounced and summoned before a committee of inquiry, he resigns and retreats to his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicity, he resigns and retreats to his daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding.

For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. He and Lucy become victims of a savage and disturbing attack which brings into relief all the faultines in their relationship.