Disgraceby J.M. Coatzee. “Though not very long and quite an easy read, this book amazed me with all it accomplishes. Coatzee does gender and race in South Africa without ever mentioning the words, hardly hinting that he’s talking politics at all. In fact, the title could be ‘Desire,’ for all its focus on what the heart wants. I’ve wanted to read Coatzee since he won the Nobel in 2003, and I wasn’t disappointed. Yes, the book’s subjects involve the political, but what he’s really written is a suspenseful—This can’t be happening but it is!-- near-Biblical tale on the meaning of love—and parenting.”