The title character, who does not understand his time and wants nothing to do with it, makes his escape. In the city, a rebellion rages, leading to looting and gunfire, as power and counter-power play their bloody game. Michael K., one of the poorest among the poor, flees to the countryside. In an abandoned farm, he lives a life beyond civilization. He survives by catching animals by hand and cultivating plants with great effort, a Robinson on the fringes of the modern world. Coetzee's ballad about this impossible oddball, who challenges time with his assertion of his own time, has found readers around the world due to its sincerity. For this novel, J. M. Coetzee received the Booker Award in 1983, the most prestigious English literary prize.