AustLit

'Coetzee describes, from Elizabeth Costello's perspective, an encounter between Costello and Paul West at a conference at which Costello discussed West's novel "The Very Rich Hours of Count von Stauffenberg." Costello had struggled with the problem of evil and concluded that writers must be wary of writing about atrocities because the horrors belong to the victims alone and are not the writer's to enter or possess.' (Publication abstract)