COETZEE, J. M. ~ Life & Times of Michael K. Double signed by the author.

FIRST PRINTING. Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 2017.

8vo., black publisher's boards, lined and lettered in gilt to spine; together in the dustwrapper, which features a photograph by Marcus Wilson-Smith, and a black and white photograph of the author by Geraldine Farley to the lower flap; THE BOOK fine, just a touch rubbed at spine tips; with bookseller sticker to gutter of rear paste-down; THE WRAPPER just a touch toned to the backstrip, else near-fine. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First edition, first issue, printed and bound in the UK by Biddles Ltd. This copy double signed by the author, both to a tipped-in bookplate, and direct to title page. A Booker McConnell Prize bookmark is also loosely inserted. The first book which won author J. M. Coetzee the Booker Prize was this, his powerful novel based around the titular protagonist who makes a difficult journey through war-torn South Africa with his mother, to a better life in the countryside. Set during apartheid in the 1970s/80s, the harrowing tale follows the arduous trek and the various hardships that Michael K suffers along the way, including imprisonment, bereavement, starvation, and displacement, and some critics have drawn comparisons between Michael and Josef K. in Kafka's 'The Trial', who both depict characters put in unexpected positions of great hardship. As one 'New York Times' reviewer wrote upon the book's publication, "One comes away feeling that one's eye has been sharpened, one's hearing vivified, not only for the bright proliferations of nature, but for human unexpectedness." In 2023 'Life and Times of Michael K' was adapted into a well-reviewed play by Lara Foot, in which the characters were depicted as puppets, created and designed by Adrian Kohler. In 1999 Coetzee was awarded the prize a second time with 'Disgrace', making him the first author to have won twice. "He thought of himself not as something heavy that left tracks behind it, but if anything, as a speck upon the surface of an earth too deeply asleep to notice the scratch of ant feet, the rasp of butterfly teeth, the tumbling of dust.” Scarce with these attributes.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Fine
JACKET: Near Fine