The first biography on J.M. Coetzee

Cossee Publishers is proud to present the first comprehensive biography of the Nobel laureate. Biographer J.C. Kannemeyer had the cooperation of Coetzee himself who provided him with private papers and gave him access to his manuscripts.

In spite of his world-wide eminence as a novelist and a literary scholar, the Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee has not thus far been the subject of a comprehensive biography. For J.M. Coetzee: A Life in Writing, J.C. Kannemeyer, well-known for his two-volume history of Afrikaans literature, and the author of six extensive biographies of Afrikaans authors, had the cooperation of Coetzee himself, who granted him interviews and put him in touch with family, friends and colleagues who could supply information about events in the author’s life.

Coetzee also provided him with copies of comprehensive documentation in his private possession, and granted him access to the manuscripts of his novels that are due to be permanently lodged at the University of Texas at Austin later this year. Apart from the information gathered through these channels, Kannemeyer also made a study of the enormous body of literature on Coetzee, and through archival research unearthed further information not hitherto accessed.

Rights have been sold to Editions du Seuil in France.

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Welcome to Cossee Publishers

Cossee is an independent publishing house located at the Amstelveld, the most beautiful square in Amsterdam. The publishing house was founded in autumn 2001 and the first books were published in the spring of 2002. Cossee publishes Dutch and translated fiction and non-fiction. With their selected list, the carefully edited and beautifully designed editions Cossee wants to give their authors the best possible platform and a growing readership.

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Kobe has worked hard all his life. He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t gamble and he doesn’t visit prostitutes. These are the facts and Kobe think this is the only thing that matters. He sticks to things you can fixate or count like snapshots or the contents of your wallet. His youngest daughter Mees doesn’t believe much in these facts. Numbers and pictures capturing the Truth and the strict distinction between fact and fiction. She doesn’t know this truth and she doesn’t know the truth about her family, because nothing is said about it. And since the things you can’t talk about leave much room for speculation, she does just that.

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Fate Always Falls on Jonah tells us how a good relationship can be put under pressure by major events and how vulnerable and persistent a seemingly defenseless child can be. Mark Boog based a major part of this novel on the detailed hospital reports he received after the hospitalization of his youngest son. For this subject he found a precision in tone and language that enthralls both readers and reviewers. Like he did in I Understand the Murderer and his award winning poetry.

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During a long, alcohol filled night of carnival nobody is who he is. Everybody is in costume and in a role. Ralf grew up on ships and is dressed up as a ferryman and he steers people to the other side of the night. But a man, dressed as a vicar, says to Ralf that you’re not dressed as someone else at carnival. No, at carnival you are finally yourself.

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The Winter Book is a merry and modern version of a classic, with beautiful literary stories about winter, snow, ice and a tropical Christmas in South Africa. There are easy and tasty recipes for stews, pea soup and glühwein and other winter foods. For those in sunny places there will be a recipe for making ice. There are tips for the garden in wintertime. There are tips for outdoor ice skating, how to train your muscles and stamina for long races and how to stay warm on the ice. And there are tips for animals around the house in winter. On feeding birds and how to make a bird house. And Gerbrand Bakker made an etymological quiz for long winter nights with which he has much success at public readings.

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How do you view the images of the war on terror when you have fought in war yourself? And what if your only son and support is preparing for battle in Iraq? What does that do to a father? This is an impressive novel about the love of a father, de power of images, passion for war, three generations of ships builders and the question if you can trade fates.

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Viktor Rijshout is a Statistics professor at the University of Trondheim in Norway. One day he is visited by a senior official of the Ministry of Justice. The gentleman offers him a well-paid assignment in which Rijshout has to tinker with the values of science.

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Maria Koenen leads a quiet life with a strict schedule. When Mark rings her doorbell her life is turned upside down. She doesn’t know he is her half brother and what he wants from her, but when he starts to visit her every day, Maria falls in love with him. They arrange a meeting on Friday night at café The Park. Then everything goes totally different from what she expected.

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Subdued, without sentimentality and in clear language, Jan van Mersbergen describes the fate of a man on the country side. A reissue of the debut which was nominated with the Debutantprize.

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