November 5, 1999

J.M. Coetzee, of U. of Cape Town, Wins Britain's Top Literary Award

J.M. Coetzee, a professor of literature at the University of Cape Town, last week won Britain's top literary award for a novel that chronicles the downfall of a middle-aged academic accused of sexual harassment by a student.

The Booker Prize is awarded annually for a distinguished work of fiction and carries a cash prize of about $35,000. Mr. Coetzee won for his novel Disgrace. He is the only author to have captured the prize twice -- in 1983, he won for The