Wittold Walccyzkiecz (The Pole) is a 70 year old Polish concert pianist specializing in works by Chopin. At a recital in Barcelona he meets Beatriz, a forty year old married woman who helped organize the concert. She and an elderly couple take Wittold out to dinner after the concert. Months later Beatriz begins getting love letters from Wittold, urging her to go to Brazil with him. At first she finds his amorous letters ridiculous and bizarre. However, eventually she finds his infatuation appealing and invites him to stay with her at her husband’s summer home in Mallorca.

Because this is a work by Nobel and twice Booker Prize winner J.M. Coetzee, I know there is more to The Pole than just a May-December romance. Beatriz and Wittold are enigmatic characters who left me full of questions and theories regarding their lives and their behaviors