In 2003, the South African writer J. M. Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for a tradition of work that questioned widely shared ethical assumptions. In his portrayal of racial repression, sexual politics, the guises of reason, and human beings hypocrisy toward animals and nature, Coetzee had become, in the words of the prize committee, "a scrupulous doubter, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of western civilization." Tackling Coetzee's extensive and extraordinary corpus and paying particular attention to the author's representation of the human-animal relationship, Anton Leist and Peter Singer deeply explore Coetzee's impact on ethical theory and philosophy.