Disgrace

J. M. Coetzee's riveting book, set in post-apartheid South Africa, centers on 52-year-old David Lurie, a professor of communications and Romantic poetry at Cape Technical University and a twice-divorced man. Lurie thinks he's made a nice life for himself, albeit a little lackluster. He makes due with what he can afford and feels. Even though his job at the university has decreased, he still faithfully teaches his lessons, and even though becoming older has made him less beautiful, he still gets his sex fix from weekly visits to a prostitute. He believes that he is content. But Lurie starts a series of events that will demolish his complacency and leave him completely humiliated when he seduces one of his pupils.