The Wilderness. Signed, lined and dated UK first edition, first printing

Harvey, Samantha

ISBN 10: 0224086073 / ISBN 13: 9780224086073

Published by Jonathan Cape, 2009

About this Item

UK 1st edition / 1st printing (Jonathan Cape, 2009). Flatsigned, lined and dated 10 Feb 09 to title page. Fine / Fine unread condition. Protected dustwrapper. PLEASE READ BEFORE ORDERING Our descriptions are accurate. Photos are of the actual book(s) for sale. If you require additional photos, please ask. We will despatch your books rapidly (almost always within 24 hrs of the receipt of your order) using proper book wraps / boxes. For books sold for more than £50 we will use only despatch methods that are fully tracked, insured and will require a signature on delivery. Standard postage costs are included in our prices for UK customers. Priority UK rates are for Royal Mail Special Delivery, guaranteed by 1pm. For overseas customers, we have set a standard Abe postal rate, but will communicate direct with customers and charge the actual cost of postage and packing by tracked and insured delivery methods requiring signature. BUYERS are responsible for payment of import taxes or duties charged by authorities in the destination country. Please note that new EU regulations make it impractical for us to post books to the EU. Therefore, prospective customers from the EU are requested to email us before making an order so that we can discuss how best we might get the books they want to them.

Seller Inventory # 2095

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Wilderness. Signed, lined and dated UK first edition, first printing
• Publisher: Jonathan Cape
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0224086073
• ISBN 13: 9780224086073
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

It's Jake's birthday. He is sitting in a small plane, being flown over the landscape that has been the backdrop to his life - his childhood, his marriage, his work, his passions. Now he is in his early sixties, and he isn't quite the man he used to be. He has lost his wife, his son is in prison, and he is about to lose his past. Jake has Alzheimer's. As the disease takes hold of him, Jake struggles to hold on to his personal story, to his memories and identity, but they become increasingly elusive and unreliable. What happened to his daughter? Is she alive, or long dead? And why exactly is his son in prison? What went so wrong in his life? There was a cherry tree once, and a yellow dress, but what exactly do they mean?As Jake, assisted by 'poor Eleanor', a childhood friend with whom for some unfathomable reason he seems to be sleeping, fights the inevitable dying of the light, the key events of his life keep changing as he tries to grasp them, and what until recently seemed solid fact is melting into surreal dreams or nightmarish imaginings. Is there anything he'll be able to salvage from the wreckage? Beauty, perhaps, the memory of love, or nothing at all? From the first sentence to the last, "The Wilderness" holds us in its grip. This is writing of extraordinary power and beauty.

About the Author

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels Orbital, The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping. Orbital was the winner of the Booker Prize 2024, and her other work has been shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award, the Women's Prize, the Guardian First Book Award and the Walter Scott Prize. The Wilderness was awarded the Betty Trask Prize. She is a tutor on the MA course in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.