The Nobel Lecture in Literature, 2003

Coetze does not make the usual direct statement on the role of the writer and the situation of mankind. Instead he tells a story of Robinson Crusoe returned to England after the long years of exile, observing and reflecting upon the worlds around him. He sees the cruelty of life in a story of ducks entrapping fellows of their own species. He tells stories of the great plague, one moving one of a father who bring provisions for his wife and family but cannot come to be with them because they are already infected by the plague. Robinson tells of his writing and his slow coming to the task and continuing even in his old age. The solitary Cruesoe is perhaps the figure for Cooetze himself, the writer , seeking to connect with and yet deeply isolated from all of mankind.