The Pole, 2023, J.M. Coetzee ****

What happens when love tries to bloom between two people who don’t speak the same language, literally and emotionally? In The Pole, Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee explores this fragile, beautiful idea through the unlikely connection between a 70-year-old Polish pianist and Beatriz, a Spanish woman in her late forties, who is unhappily yet securely married.

The story begins in Barcelona, where the Polish artist has been invited to perform. The spark is immediate and one-sided, he is drawn to Beatriz with a quiet, persistent intensity. She, poised and enigmatic, is part of the organizing committee, and what follows is less a romance and more a delicate attempt at connection. Their exchanges are clouded by cultural distance and linguistic fumbling, neither Polish nor Spanish, they converse in English, a language foreign to them both. And perhaps that's the most poignant layer of the novella: watching two people try to reach each other across so many barriers, with words that never quite fit.

What’s especially fascinating is that Coetzee himself is neither Polish nor Spanish, he’s a South African writer living in Australia and yet he captures this emotional and linguistic dissonance with such quiet precision. His prose is sparse, yet lyrical; simple, yet deeply textured. There’s something deeply elegant about how he writes: he trusts the reader, he leaves space, and the emotions echo long after the final page.

At just over 100 pages, The Pole is a short, fast read but don’t let its length fool you. It’s filled with subtle tension, reflection, and that signature Coetzee restraint. I found myself savoring each sentence, and marveling at how, well into his 80s, Coetzee continues to write with such delicacy and insight.

If you’re in the mood for a quiet, intelligent novella about longing, miscommunication, and the strange possibilities of late-life love, this one is worth your time. Beautifully written and quietly moving, The Pole is a small but powerful gem.