The research for this biography of J.M. Coetzee began in July 2008 with a rereading of his published work and a preliminary investigation of the secondary literature. I was fully aware that I was dealing with a renowned author, a central figure in English studies at universities worldwide. About 500 M.A. and doctoral dissertations on his work have been completed while new books on his novels are appearing all the time in various languages. 1 In September 2008 I worked my way through some of this abundance of studies on Coetzee in the National English Literary Museum (NELM) in Grahamstown. 这本J.M.库切传记的研究始于2008年7月，重读了库切出版的作品，并对次要文学进行了初步调查。我完全知道我正在与一位著名作家打交道，他是世界各地大学英语研究的中心人物。大约500篇硕士和博士学位论文已经完成，而关于他的小说的新书一直以各种语言出现。1 2008年9月，我在格拉姆镇的国家英语文学博物馆（NELM）完成了对库切的大量研究。