Foe - Hardcover

Coetzee, J M

3.41

11,304 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0436102986 ISBN 13: 9780436102981

Publisher: Secker, 1986

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When Susan Barton is marooned on an island in the middle of the Atlantic she enters the world of two men. One is a mute negro called Friday; the other is Robinson Cruso.
The Island is a society already at work. Its rules are simple: survival, industry and order. Cruso is master and Friday is the slave. Susan watches the creation of a barren world - an architecture of stone terraces above bleak and empty beaches - and waits to be rescued.
Back in London, with Friday in tow as evidence of her strange adventure, she approaches the author Daniel Foe. But Foe is less interested in the history of the island than in the story if Susan herself, and battle lines are drawn between writer and subject. Sole witness to this contest, as he was to the mystery of Cruso's island, is the silent Friday.

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Review:

A small miracle of a book...of marvellous intricacy and overwhelming power (Washington Post)

A finely honed testament to its author's intelligence, imagination and skill (The New York Times)

From the Back Cover:

'At last I could row no further. My hands were blistered, my back was burned, my body ached. With a sigh, making barely a splash, I slipped overboard . . .'

In the early eighteenth century, Susan Barton is washed ashore on a remote desert island. There she encounters a man named Cruso and his silent servant, Friday. Far from civilization, she has no choice but to join these castaways - until the day a passing ship offers the chance of rescue.

On arriving in London, Susan decides to tell her story and seeks help from the well-known author Daniel Foe. But, as a writer, Foe seeks not to tell the truth as Susan remembers it but instead to produce a grand narrative that will outlive its age - one Susan cannot recognize . . .

'A small miracle of a book' Washington Post

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