The Third Reich Roberto Bolano The Paris Review, Volumes 196 – 199, New York, 2011 These four volumes of the Paris Review constitute the true first English language printing of The Third Reich. Bolano wrote this novel in 1989, but never published it during his lifetime. It was found amongst his papers after his death [...]
On Chesil Beach — Limited Edition Ian McEwan Jonathan Cape, London, 2007 As I promised in an earlier post, here is one of the slipcased limited editions of McEwan’s excellent On Chesil Beach. This one is the cloth and paper bound edition limited to 1200 signed copies. There was also a full leather edition limited [...]
The Lighthouse Alison Moore Salt Publishing, Cromer, U.K. 2012 The Lighthouse by Alison Moore is one of my favourite novels of 2012. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and for the National Book Award for New Writer of the Year. Here are a couple of great reviews with which I am in total agreement. [...]
The Swimming Pool Library Alan Hollinghurst Chatto and Windus, London, 1988 This novel, with its many references to the early twentieth century gay English writer Ronald Firbank, won the 1989 Somerset Maugham Award and was nominated for the Booker Prize. Edmund White called it ‘…surely the best book about gay life yet written by an [...]
It’s Fine by Me Per Petterson Harvill Secker, London, 2011 Here is another engaging work of fiction by Norwegian novelist, translator and bookseller, Per Petterson. This is a unique and heartfelt take on the coming of age story. It is, of course, written in Petterson’s tender and understated style — so much so that its [...]
Out Stealing Horses Per Petterson Graywolf Press, U.S.A. 2007 Out Stealing Horses won two major Norwegian Prizes before Anne Born’s English translation won the 2006 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It was named by the New York Times as one of the top ten books of 2007. Although [...]
The Chemistry of Tears Peter Carey Faber and Faber, London, 2012 Peter Carey is one of my favourite writers, and The Chemistry of Tears is another wonderful addition to his work. A grieving lover who cannot divulge her grief, an antique automaton, the story of a man and a woman brought together across history — [...]
Roberto Bolano By Night in Chile The Harvill Press, U.K. 2003 This book is very intriguing to me. To start off with a slight aside, like many serious book collectors, I do not understand why advance readers copies are not more valuable than they usually are. Also called uncorrected proofs, or advance review copies, these [...]
His Illegal Self Peter Carey Alfred A. Knopf, U.S.A. 2008 His Illegal Self was published simultaneously in Britain, Australia and America. Even though he now lives and teaches in New York, because Carey is Australian, the first edition put out by Random House Australia sells for a little more than the others. The range for [...]
On the Road Jack Kerouac Signet, U.S.A. 1958 I love the beatnik cover art on this first paperback edition of On The Road. This is the stated first printing which came out about a year after the Viking true first hardcover edition. According to the New York Times this book is ”the most beautifully executed, the [...]