London: Hamish Hamilton-Penguin Books, 2005. Book. As New. Hardcover. Signed by Author(s). 1st Edition. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. SIGNED. Black cloth-effect paper covered boards, lettered in gold foil. Text block edges mildly tanned, typical of issue, otherwise as issued. Dust jacket as issued, now in mylar. 1st ptg. ("1" on copyright pg.). 306 pp. Signed by author on front cover, no inscription or date..

Synopsis

Winner of the Whitbread Award for best novel and a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, The Accidental is the virtuoso new novel by the singularly gifted Ali Smith. Jonathan Safran Foer has called her writing "thrilling." Jeanette Winterson has praised her for her "style, ideas, and punch." Here, in a novel at once profound, playful, and exhilaratingly inventive, she transfixes us with a portrait of a family unraveled by a mysterious visitor.Amber--thirtysomething and barefoot--shows up at the door of the Norfolk cottage that the Smarts are renting for the summer. She talks her way in. She tells nothing but lies. She stays for dinner.Eve Smart, the author of a best-selling series of biographical reconstructions, thinks Amber is a student with whom her husband, Michael, is sleeping. Michael, an English professor, knows only that her car broke down. Daughter Astrid, age twelve, thinks she's her mother's friend. Son Magnus, age seventeen, thinks she's an angel.As Amber insinuates herself into the family, the questions of who she is and how she's come to be there drop away. Instead, dazzled by her seeming exoticism, the Smarts begin to examine the accidents of their lives through the searing lens of Amber's perceptions. When Eve finally banishes her from the cottage, Amber disappears from their sight, but not--they discover when they return home to London--from their profoundly altered lives.Fearlessly intelligent and written with an irresistible blend of lyricism and whimsy, The Accidental is a tour de force of literary improvisation that explores the nature of truth, the role of chance, and the transformative power of storytelling.From the Hardcover edition.

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Details

Bookseller: Saucony Book Shop (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 048330
Title: The Accidental [SIGNED]
Author: Smith, Ali
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: New As New
Jacket Condition: As New
Edition: 1st Edition
ISBN 10: 0241141907
ISBN 13: 9780241141908
Publisher: Hamish Hamilton-Penguin Books
Place of Publication: London
Date Published: 2005
Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall

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Saucony Book Shop

Terms of Sale: All orders are processed on a first-come, first-served basis. Full refund on any misrepresented item(s) within 30 days of purchase date. Returned books must arrive in the same condition as they were sent. We use standard ABAA grading and terminology, and we will gladly respond to pre-purchase queries. Payment: Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, check, money order, cash. Happy hunting!

About the Seller

Saucony Book Shop

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Kutztown, Pennsylvania

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About Saucony Book Shop

The Saucony Book Shop, located in the heart of scenic rural Berks County, epicenter of Pennsylvania German folk culture (our shop specialty), offers a full range of gently used, rare, and antiquarian books, with many volumes of scholarly merit and an unabashed emphasis on the quaint, the curious, and the utterly obscure. We make no attempt to be a general-service book shop. Our inventory is highly selective, individually chosen from among the hundreds of thousands of books to which we have access annually at auctions, library and estate sales, and through individual scouts and vendors. We do not handle material that does not meet our expectations in terms of condition or interest to our specialized, idiosyncratic customers. Despite maintaining a browsing inventory of more than 15,000 volumes, we have minimized our carbon footprint by maintaining our entire operation in a cozy ca. 1890 barn and lean-to adjacent to an historic creamery in rural Maxatawny Township. Our shop is available for browsing by appointment and occasionally, in temperate weather, by chance, so email or call ahead to peruse the eclectic selection gracing our shelves, or ask our ferociously over-read staff for recommendations. Selling antiquarian books of merit since 1981. Full search and appraisal services; always keenly interested in purchasing quality used books, whether by the piece or by the bushel. Thanks for reading about us! Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

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Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Jacket: Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Text Block: Most simply the inside pages of a book. More precisely, the block of paper formed by the cut and stacked pages of a book....
Edges: The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
New: A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...