MORRISON, Toni ~ A Mercy. Signed by the author.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Chatto & Windus, London: 2008.

8vo., publisher's burgundy boards, lettered in gilt to spine with device to foot; dark green endpapers; together in the unclipped photographic dustwrapper (£15.99 to front flap); THE BOOK essentially fine, just a touch bumped to foot of spine; THE WRAPPER similarly very near fine, with a couple of tiny creases. The wrapper is protected in a removable mylar cover. FIRST EDITION. This copy signed by the author to the title page. A ticket to the signing at the Hay Festival in 2014 is loosely laid in. Morrison's ninth novel, set in colonial America in the late 17th century, which follows a European farmer, his purchased wife, and his growing household of indentured or enslaved white, Native American, and African characters. Each character has a story; Lina whose tribe was decimated by smallpox; Rebekka, a victim of religious fervour, and the daughter of a sea-captain, amongst many others. “Since winning the Nobel Prize in 1993, Morrison has, not altogether reluctantly, taken on the voice of America's conscience”, one contemporary Guardian reviewer writes, “Portentous is not always a comfortable tone, but in the coming American weeks it may well be the appropriate one. The first line of A Mercy? 'Don't be afraid.'”. A beautiful example.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Near Fine