COETZEE, J. M. ~ Summertime. Signed by the author.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Harvill Secker, London: 2009.

8vo., pale brown boards lettered in gilt to spine; navy blue endpapers; in the original unclipped photographic dustwrapper (£17.99) with a black and white photograph of the author to the lower flap; THE BOOK fine; THE WRAPPER fine. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First UK edition, first printing, with full number line 1-10. This copy signed by the author to a bookplate affixed to the front free endpaper. The third and final installment in the 'Scenes from Provincial Life' series, a trilogy of fictionalised memoirs by the South African writer J. M. Coetzee. Preceded by 'Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life' (1997), and 'Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II' (2002), the books detail the author's life growing up in Worcester, the struggles he faced in his early twenties in London after fleeing political unrest in Cape Town, and this, the final work, set after the author's death. Written from the perspective of an biographer attempting to gain insight into the mind of the late writer, the story is told through five characters who knew him intimately - the married woman with whom he had an affair, a Brazilian dancer whose daughter had English lessons with him, and other friends and colleagues including among them the author's own father. The book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in the year of publication - the author had previously already won the prestigious award twice. "An elegant request" one Guardian article wrote, upon publication, "that the sum of Coetzee's existence as a public figure should be looked for only in his writing." A wonderful example.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Fine
JACKET: Fine