In the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada it was published as the novella "The Pole" along with five stories that were written over the previous two decades.

[1][2] In the United States it was published as a stand-alone novel, titled The Pole, and did not include the five "appended" stories.

The novel (or novella)[1] The Pole centres around a Polish pianist, 72 year-old Witold Walczykiewicz, who is invited to Barcelona, Spain to perform.

Witold eventually travels to Mallorca, where Beatriz's husband has a summer home, to be with her.

Coetzee explains that this is deliberate on his part because "the symbolism of publishing in the South before the North is important to me".