For the first time in Russian - the newest novel by the famous John Maxwell Coetzee, twice winner of the Booker and Nobel Prize in Literature, “the last of our great writers” (Nation), the famous author of such novels as “Infamy” and “Waiting” barbarians”, as well as the autobiographical trilogy “Scenes from the Life of a Provincial”. Beatriz is a youthful and graceful lady from Barcelona, a mother of two children, a banker’s wife, an active participant in the Concert Circle of music lovers. One day, the Concert Circle invites the Polish pianist Witold, whose last name contains so many “h”s, that no one can pronounce it and everyone just calls him Pole, to perform in Barcelona. He is “a well-known interpreter of Chopin, but quite unique: his Chopin is not at all romantic, on the contrary, he is strict, Chopin as the heir of Bach.” At first, Witold doesn’t make much of an impression on Beatrice, but she doesn’t make much of an impression on him. But how to convey your true feelings in a language that is not your native one?..