Exceptional writing as always from Coetzee. This book, the second in a trilogy, brings forward the story of Simón and the boy Davíd who is in his care. The book is more philosophy than story, bringing points of view on art and numbers that are told from rational, academic and theoretical standpoints by the characters. Different philosophical theories are wrapped together through the acts and actions of the dance teacher Ana Magdalena and the uncouth museum attendant Dmitri who is infatuated with her, and how they bring their influence into the life of the child Davíd.

Continuing on from the previous book in the series, the world is constructed around migration to a new place, and the forgetting of the old. Gripping and stark, and very strange, this book (and its predecessor) feel like a culmination of the author's ideas from his career.