200,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿 

Overnight NZ-wide delivery | 📍 Visit our Auckland bookstore • Open 7 days, 8:30am–5pm

Summertime

3.78 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 6,777 ratings, 665 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Summertime is an autobiographical novel that blends fact and fiction as a biographer reconstructs the life of the late John Coetzee through interviews and personal reflections. It offers a portrait of a complex individual grappling with his identity as an outsider and writer in South Africa during the 1970s. Through fragmented narratives, the book explores themes of solitude, creativity, and the intricacies of human perception.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2200
Elsewhere:
$2400
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're intrigued by deeply introspective and reflective narratives that explore the complexities of a writer's life. It appeals to readers interested in rich character development, and themes of identity, fame, and the challenges of interpersonal relationships, all portrayed by a skilled storyteller.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Continuing Text’s re-release of J. M. Coetzee’s revered works with stylish new covers, Summertime is a modern classic by the great Nobel Prize winner accompanied by an introduction from literary critic James Ley

Continuing Text's re-release of J. M. Coetzee's revered works with stylish new covers, Summertime is a modern classic by the great Nobel Prize winner accompanied by an introduction from literary critic James Ley.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

And he was just a boy, this Mr Coetzee. I was a woman and he was a boy. He was a boy as a priest is always a boy until suddenly one day he is an old man.

After some time in America, the young unpublished writer John Coetzee returns to suburban Cape Town to live with his ailing father. His biographer chronicles this period in a series of interviews with the people important in Coetzee’s life, constructing a portrait of an awkward literary man at a remove from those around him. Summertime is the last of J. M. Coetzee’s masterly trio of autobiographical novels, Scenes from Provincial Life.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Summertime by J. M. Coetzee is regarded as a reflective and introspective work that captures the author's characteristic depth and insight. The narrative is often praised for its compelling exploration of identity, offering a blend of poignant emotion and compelling introspection, reminiscent of Coetzee's earlier impactful works.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781922330048

Publisher: Text Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 December 2020

Country: Australia

Imprint: The Text Publishing Company

Contributors:

  • Introduction by James Ley

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 288

About the Author

J. M. Coetzee was the first author to win the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. He lives in Adelaide.

Also by J. M. Coetzee

View all
  • Disgrace
    The irony does not escape him: that the one who comes to teach learns the keenest of lessons, while those who come to learn learn nothing. J. M. Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winning novel Disgrace, set in post-apartheid South Africa, takes us into the disquieting mind of twice-divorced university teacher David Lurie as he loses his job and his honour after engaging...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Waiting for the Barbarians
    How do you eradicate contempt, especially when that contempt is founded on nothing more substantial than differences in table manners, variations in the structure of the eyelid? Shall I tell you what I sometimes wish? I wish that these barbarians would rise up and teach us a lesson, so that we would learn to respect them. After twenty years of...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Foe
    As Text continues the re-release of J. M. Coetzee's major works, this second instalment of four titles—with introductions from top emerging and established writers—will win over a new generation of Coetzee readers. In a world of chance, is there a better and a worse? We yield to a stranger's embrace or give ourselves to the waves; for the blink of...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Age of Iron
    As Text continues the re-release of J. M. Coetzee's major works, this second instalment of four titles—with introductions from top emerging and established writers—will win over a new generation of Coetzee readers. I am falling, I think, I am falling—welcome sweet sleep. Then at the very edge of oblivion something looms up and pulls me back, something whose name can...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Boyhood
    Continuing Text's re-release of J. M. Coetzee's revered works with stylish new covers, Boyhood is a modern classic by the great Nobel Prize winner, accompanied by an introduction from acclaimed author Liam Pieper. It is up to him to somehow get beyond childhood, beyond family and school, to a new life where he will not need to pretend any more....
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Dusklands
    As Text continues the re-release of J. M. Coetzee's revered works, this second instalment of four titles—with introductions from top emerging and established writers—will win over a new generation of Coetzee readers. You must listen. I speak with the voice of things to come. I speak in troubled times and tell you how to be as children again. J. M....
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Elizabeth Costello
    Continuing Text's re-release of J.M. Coetzee's revered works with stylish new covers, Elizabeth Costello is a modern classic by the great Nobel Prize winner, accompanied by an introduction from one of Australia's foremost writing critics and Coetzee experts. Introduction by Melinda Harvey Belief may be no more, in the end, than a source of energy, like a battery which one...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • In the Heart of the Country
    Today my father brought home his new bride. Magda lives on an isolated farm in South Africa with her callous father and their staff, who treat her with disdain. Her psychological state, already precarious, disintegrates when her father takes a black mistress, and a tenuous feudal peace is shattered. In prose rich and vivid, Coetzee re-enacts the colonial experience in...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Slow Man
    Continuing Text's re-release of J. M. Coetzee's revered works with stylish new covers, Slow Man is a modern classic by the great Nobel Prize winner, accompanied by an introduction from editor and critic Andrew Fuhrmann. If none is left who will pronounce judgment on such a life, if the Great Judge of All has given up judging and withdrawn to...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Childhood of Jesus
    The child is silent. For a while he too is silent. Then he speaks. "Please believe me — please take it on faith — this is not a simple matter. The boy is without mother. What that means I cannot explain to you because I cannot explain it to myself. Yet I promise you, if you will simply say Yes,...
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Master of Petersburg
    Four modern classics by the great South African writer, J. M. Coetzee, re-released with stylish new covers and accompanied by introductions from some of Australia's brightest writing talents. History is coming to an end; the old account-books will soon be thrown into the fire; in this dead time between old and new, all things are permitted. He does not believe...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Youth
    Continuing Text's re-release of J. M. Coetzee's revered works with stylish new covers, Youth is a modern classic by the great Nobel Prize winner accompanied by an introduction from bestselling author Michael McGirr. He has escaped South Africa. Everything is going well, he has attained his first goal, he ought to be happy. In fact, as the weeks pass, he...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

Browse lists from our team

More from General Fiction

View all
  • On Sale
    13% off
    Yesteryear
    A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE — Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE — Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE — Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS — Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale — Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    14% off
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    A Court of Splintered Harmony
    Romance, danger, and intrigue await you in the breathtaking sixth book in the #1 bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series.What was broken will be remade.Deep in the heart of the continent, Koschei the Deathless is stirring. Though he's been bound to a mountain lake for millennia, the insidious threat of his return now spreads across the Fae territories,...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    10% off
    New Release
    Threshing Day
    The next book in the blockbuster Empyrean series, Threshing Day contains thirteen stories starring your favorite characters and their dragons. The deluxe first edition includes sixteen beautiful original full-color illustrations by artist Joe Requeza.    Rebecca Yarros is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Fourth Wing and In the...
    Hardback
    $6300
    Usually:
    $6999
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
    Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...
    Set
    $12400
    Elsewhere:
    $15500
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    11% off
    Assassin’s Apprentice
    Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb marks the beginning of an extraordinary adventure in the rich and immersive world of the Six Duchies. Set against the backdrop of a kingdom teetering on the brink of civil war, this gripping tale introduces readers to FitzChivalry Farseer, a royal bastard whose existence threatens the stability of the crown. When the crown prince's secret...
    Paperback
    $1700
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    20% off
    A Court of Thorns and Roses Paperback Box Set (5 books)
    All five of the Court of Thorns and Roses paperbacks packaged together in a gorgeous box set. "Passionate, violent, sexy and daring." —USA TODAY on A Court of Thorns and Roses Feyre is a huntress. The skin of a wolf would bring enough gold to feed her sisters for a month. But the life of a magical creature comes at...
    Set
    $8000
    Elsewhere:
    $12495
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    19% off
    John of John
    The stunning new novel from the Booker Prize-winning, Sunday Times-bestselling author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo.'John of John has the emotional range and sense of sympathy of his earlier books, but this book is special, it has an urgency, an immediacy, a brilliant sense of place, the drama of fierce emotion repressed, concealed and volcanically exposed' - Colm Tóibín'To read John of John is to move to...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    14% off
    A Court of Wings and Ruin
    The third instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON, romantic fantasy epic and TikTok sensation, ACOTAR. From multi-million and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. In A Court of Wings and Ruin, the gripping third book of the ACOTAR series, Feyre Archeron faces the ultimate battle for her world. Having returned to the Spring Court, she is determined to gather...
    Paperback
    $1800
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    13% off
    The Things We Never Say
    Internationally bestselling and prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout's new novel tells the story of a chance incident in a man's life—a poignant meditation on loneliness, friendship, and free will in a capsizing world. Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He spends his days teaching history to high schoolers, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a...
    Hardback
    $2800
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    14% off
    A Court of Frost and Starlight
    In A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas, readers are invited to revisit the enchanting world of Prythian in a heartwarming and introspective narrative. Set against the backdrop of the Winter Solstice, Feyre Archeron and her mate Rhysand return to centre stage as they strive to restore the Night Court after the devastating conflicts of A Court...
    Paperback
    $1800
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 190,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.