Even the Dogs Jon McGregor Bloomsbury, London, 2010 This is the back cover blurb for Even the Dogs: “On a still and frozen day between Christmas and New Year, a man’s body is found lying in his ruined flat. Found, and then taken away, examined, investigated and cremated. As the state begins its detailed, dispassionate [...]
The Museum of Innocence Orhan Pamuk Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2009 This beautiful novel by Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk uses the story of a rich Turkish man’s selfish love of a shop girl as a metaphor for the struggles of a Westernizing society that clings to its traditional view of women as chattel. In [...]
A Farewell to Arms — Hemingway Library Edition Ernest Hemingway Scribner, New York, 2012 Hemingway wrote A Farewell to Arms when he was thirty years old and it was an immediate success. Dubbed his bleakest novel, it was also his first bestseller. When this novel, set during the Italian campaign of World War 1, came [...]
Some Hope Edward St. Aubyn Open City Press, New York, 2003 Although the original novellas that make up this book first came out in Britain in 1992 and 1994, this 2003 collection is the American debut of Edward St. Aubyn. The collection came out in the U.K. in 1998 under the title The Patrick Melrose [...]
The Red House Mark Haddon Jonathan Cape, London, 2012 This is the advance readers edition of Mark Haddon’s most recent novel. These proof copies are sent to reviewers and book stores prior to the release of the true first editions. For a number of reasons, there are many collectors of these uncorrected proofs. Uncorrected proofs [...]
Ocean of Words Ha Jin Vintage International, New York, 1998 Ocean of Words was originally published in 1996 by the American company Zoland Press. The true first edition is the Zoland paperback original. They did put out a hardcover edition, but only after the collection of short stories won the 1997 Pen/Hemingway Award. Many people [...]
Life Shrinkage + The New Guy James P. Reynolds Crack the Spine Literary Journal, U.S.A. April and August, 2012 Having so far written about 300 posts about other people’s writing, now I am going to showcase my own fiction. Last year, Crack the Spine, an on-line literary journal, published 2 of my short stories. Life [...]
The Mystery of Edwin Drood Charles Dickens Thomas Nelson and Sons, London, 1913 The Mystery of Edwin Drood was Dickens’ final novel and was unfinished at the time of his death. The identity of the killer is, therefore, unknown and is the subject of debate. Like most of Dickens’ work, it was published in serialized [...]
Postcards Annie Proulx Fourth Estate, London, 1996 This is the first edition/first printing of the Fourth Estate Compact Classic edition of Postcards. It is in fine/fine condition and is signed in Proulx’s typical tiny autograph on the title page. At only 6″ x 4″, and with its wood grain patterned dust jacket, it is attractive and [...]
The Sea, The Sea Iris Murdoch Chatto and Windus, U.K. 1978 This novel, to my mind, is Iris Murdoch’s masterpiece. The cover art is called The Great Wave off Kanagawa, a famous woodblock print done in 1831 by Japanese artist Hokusai. The Sea, The Sea, which won the 1978 Booker Prize, is the story of [...]