Anyone familiar with Coetzee's novels knows that they are challenging, and elusive of interpretation. And what is true of the work is true of the author himself: Coetzee is a very private person, who has a reputation for being unforthcoming with interviewers. This means that the available details of Coetzee's life are sparse (and not truly verifiable). However, in a paradoxical move, he has begun a process in the latter half of his career of developing a complex form of confessional writing, in which autobiographical elements are prominent. The most obvious books, here, are the two memoirs, Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life (1997) and Youth (2002), the former covering some key formative experiences up to the age of thirteen, the latter pinpointing formative moments between 1959 and 1964, with an emphasis on Coetzee's experiences in London. These enrich our understanding of the author's life – or, at least his chosen self-projection – but they must also be treated with caution. As exercises in the confessional mode, they also invite reflection on this mode, and sometimes do so by encouraging the reader initially to accept at face value accounts which must then be re-evaluated. Youth, which was published as ‘fiction’, is particularly challenging in this regard.

John Maxwell Coetzee was born in Cape Town on 9 February 1940. His boyhood in the Cape Province was dominated by cultural conflicts, consequent upon his situation as an English-speaking white South African, and the social location of his schoolteacher mother, and his father, who practised intermittently as a lawyer.