Here and Now: Selected Letters 2008-2011 - Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee

Here and Now collects the correspondence between Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee, two writers who occupy similar constellations in the literary imagination, written between 2008 and 2011. After meeting for the first time in 2008, Coetzee proposed to Auster they begin to exchange letters, in the hope they would ‘God willing, strike sparks off each other.’ The letters are a treat, and offer a valuable account of the life of the modern author. Errant critics, chaotic literary festivals and charlatan literary journalists all provide entertaining subjects for our authors’ penetrating gaze. 

The correspondence shifts between Quixotic forays into global politics and more serious inquisitions into philosophical matters. Sport is one recurring theme – why Coetzee is compelled to watch something he knows he will never play again, why Auster is so damn competitive. We see two of the greatest literary minds in the world at play, and we see this accomplished with wry humour, their strong personalities shining through each and every letter. Auster and Coetzee become welcome companions, slightly curmudgeonly old grumps railing against the decline and fall of modern society, yet warm and intelligent friends, their genuine affection for one another being the lasting impression these letters leave. [Daniel Daives]