Man of Few Words

　　Everyone chases success, but not all of us want to be famous.

　　South African writer John Maxwell Coetzee is （1） for keeping himself to himself. When the 63-year-old was named the 2003 Nobel Prize winner for literature earlier this month, reporters were warned that they would find him "particularly difficult to （2）".

　　Coetzee lives in Australia but spends part of the year teaching at the University of Chicago. He seemed （3） by the news that he won the US$1.3 million prize. "It came as a complete surprise. I wasn't even aware they were due to make the announcement," he said.

　　His （4） of privacy led to doubts as to whether Coetzee will attend the prize-giving in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10.

　　But despite being described as （5） to track down, the critics agree that his writing is easy to get to know.

　　Born in Cape Town, South Africa, to an English-speaking family, Coetzee （6） his breakthrough in 1980 with the novel "Waiting for the Barbarians （野蠻人）". He （7） his place among the world's leading writers with two Booker prize victories, Britain's highest honour for novels. He first （8） in 1983 for the "Life and Times of Michael K", and his second title came in 1999 for "Disgrace".

　　A major theme in his work is South Africa's former apartheid （種族隔離） system, which divided whites from blacks. （9） with the problems of violence, crime and racial division that still exist in the country, his books have enabled ordinary people to understand apartheid （10） within.

　　"I have always been more interested in the past than the future," he said in a rare interview. "The past （11） its shadow over the present. I hope I have made one or two people think （12） about whether they want to forget the past completely."

　　In fact this purity in his writing seems to be （13） in his personal life. Coetzee is a vegetarian, a cyclist rather than a motorist and doesn't drink alcohol.

　　But what he has （14） to literature, Culture and the people of South Africa is far greater than the things he has given up. "In looking at weakness and failure in life,' the Nobel prize judging panel said, "Coetzee's work （15） the divine （神圣的） spark in man."

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