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By Root 1813 0

ambulancemen exchange glances, shrug. It is not their business, taking care of the wound, taking care of the patient. Their business is to convey the patient to his or her place of residence. After that it is the patient’s business, or the patient’s family’s business, or else no one’s business.

It used to be that he, John, had too little employment. Now that is about to change. Now he will have as much employment as he can handle, as much and more. He is going to have to abandon some of his personal projects and be a nurse. Alternatively, if he will not be a nurse, he must announce to his father: I cannot face the prospect of ministering to you day and night. I am going to abandon you. Goodbye. One or the other: there is no third way.

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Version 1.0

Scenes From Provincial Life

9781864712094

Published by Random House Australia

Copyright © J.M Coetzee 1997, 2002, 2009, 2011

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

A Vintage Book

Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd

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www.randomhouse.com.au

Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at www.randomhouse.com.au/offices

First published in Great Britain by Harvill Secker in 2011

First Published in Australia by Vintage in 2011

Boyhood was first published in Great Britain by Secker & Warburg in 1997; Youth was first published in Great Britain by Secker & Warburg in 2002; and Summertime was first published in Great Britain by Harvill Secker in 2009. They have been revised for republication in 2011

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry

Coetzee, J.M., 1940-

Scenes from provincial life / J.M Coetzee

ISBN 978 1 86471 208 7 (pbk)

South Africans - England - Fiction.

Young men - Fiction.

Authors, South African - Fiction.

London (England) - Fiction.

823.914

Cover adapted by Darian Casuby

Author photograph © Bert Nienhaus