The Sea
- The Sea
- John Banville
- Picador, London, 2005
The Sea is my favourite of John Banville’s many novels. After getting the shortlist down to just two novels, Banville’s The Sea won the 2005 Booker Prize against Kazuo Ishiguru’s Never Let Me Go.
The only other time Banville made it to the Booker Prize shortlist was for his novel The Book of Evidence which lost to Ishiguru’s The Remains of the Day in 1989.
This is the true first edition and first printing of The Sea. It is a beautifully signed copy in fine/fine condition. According to Wikipedia the first print run was only 3,000 copies, so signed first printings are rare.
Prices start today at about $200 and go up to $500. There was a limited edition of 56 signed copies put out simultaneously by Picador. There is only one of these available today and it is close to $800.
If you want a signed copy for much less money, go for a later printing, an American or Canadian first edition, or a copy with condition issues.
Many reviewers call this novel the best Booker Prize winner thus far.
The Sea is the story of a man who has recently lost his wife to cancer and goes back to his childhood vacation spot to ponder his life. There is a positively depicted lesbian main character.
Of The Sea, Don DeLillo writes, ‘Banville writes a dangerous and clear-running prose and has a grim gift for seeing people’s souls.’ Publishers Weekly raves, ‘Like the strange high tide that figures into Max’s visions and remembrances, this novel sweeps the reader into the inexorable waxing and waning of life.’
