The pole - coetzee

Short book, exploring the meaning of love from two different perspectives: a Polish pianist (the pole) and a Spanish housewife. She is a socialite, economically accommodated, who meets the pianist in a Chopin concert she co-organizes.

There's a bit of play with the language (not everyone can communicate with everyone else). Witold, the pianist, falls in love with Beatriz, and she struggles placing that love at that moment of her life. He is old, she is middled-aged (with children who are independent).

The exchange e-mails, she does not reply, then she re-emerges, goes to meet him, invites him to spend some time at her beach house, where they have sex for a couple of consecutive nights.

Then silence.

Until his death, when she receives a message saying there's a box for her with things the pianist left (essentially some poems on which he worked during the last few years of his life).

The entire novel is an exploration of an asymmetric love, lack of commitment from her side, social pressure (what would they think if...) Overall, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the language barrier in between them, her english is better than his. Some small details are in Spanish or in Polish, etc.

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