Disgrace
By J.M. Coetzee

A South African college professor has an affair with one of his students, gets caught, and as a result, moves out of the city to his adult daughter's farm. Then something terrible happens, and everything breaks down. I just tore through this—and I'm normally a slow reader. The main character's emotional and psychic journey is so well drawn. I don't usually buy multiple books by the same author, but after this perfect novel, I read a lot of Coetzee: Life & Times of Michael K, Elizabeth Costello, and Slow Man.