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The Rise and Fall of Great Powers

The Rise and Fall of Great Powers

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The Rise and Fall of Great Powers

by Tom Rachman

  • New
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
New/New
ISBN 10
0679643656
ISBN 13
9780679643654
Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
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About This Item

NY: The Dial Press, 2014. SIGNED. Brand New. 1st/1st. Stated First Edition, first printing with complete number line ending with 1. Signed by Tom Rachman on the title page. Unread book is tight and square with solid hinges, sharp corners, and clean unmarred boards. Textblock is clean with no writing, bookplate or markings and not BCE, ex-library or remaindered. Opened only for photos. Dust jacket is unclipped ($27.00) and Fine. Protected in a new Brodart Mylar cover. From the author of The Italian Teacher and The Imperfectionists comes a brilliant, intricately woven novel about a bookseller who travels the world to make sense of her puzzling past.

Synopsis

Born in London and raised in Vancouver, TOM RACHMAN is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Columbia School of Journalism. He was a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press (stationed in Rome, with assignments taking him to Japan, South Korea, Turkey, and Egypt, among other places). From 2006 to 2008, he worked as an editor at the International Herald Tribune in Paris. He now lives in London.

Reviews

On May 28 2014, CloggieDownunder said:
The Rise and Fall of Great Powers is the second full-length novel by British-born journalist and author, Tom Rachman. At the age of thirty, Tooly Zylerberg, a woman with a very unconventional past, buys a bookshop in Caergenog, a small village in Wales. A few years later, as she works in her slowly-failing business, Tooly receives an email that draws her back to New York, back to her past. Tooly’s history is gradually revealed as the narrative switches between three distinct time periods: in 1988, Tooly is in Bangkok with Paul; in 1999/2000, she is living in New York with Humphrey; and 2011 Tooly travels New York and further. The slow reveal makes for plenty of intrigue as the reader wonders about the unusual characters that people Tooly’s life and the transitions between those three significant phases described. Rachman fills his novel with memorable individuals, few of whom turn out to be quite what they first seem: Tooly herself, quirky, funny and highly individual; the emotionally undemonstrative yet deeply caring Paul; the enigmatic and very charismatic Venn; the Russian ex-pat Humphrey, who teaches Tooly to play chess and cements her love of books; the volatile, unpredictable Sarah, full of mercurial moods and melodrama, flitting in and out of Tooly’s life; the steady, stable Duncan, lawyer and music enthusiast; the somewhat eccentric Welshman, Fogg; and the opinionated Emerson, (“a mediocrity in search of an admiration society”). Rachman’s varied cast offer opinions on historic events, current affairs and life in general (“….progress played a trick. It presented the ultimate gluttony of all: those double clicks that turned everyone into rodents pressing buttons for the next sugar pellet. People who used to deride the losers for watching ten hours of TV a day won’t hesitate to click a mouse for longer” and “People did not see the world for what it was, but for what they were”). His descriptive prose is wonderfully evocative (“To the right lay England: quilted countryside seamed by hedgerows and trees, every field fenced in and farmed. To the left was Wales: a tangle of rambling green, flinty farmhouses, forbidding woods” and “The disquiet of others was an undiscovered force alongside gravity that, rather than pulling downwards, emanated outward from its source” and “In the hotel lobby, a brass revolving door swallowed Tooly, spat her into the metropolis, her entrance punctuated by doormen whistling for cabs and the bap-bap-bap of horns”). Readers will laugh out loud (especially at Humphrey’s mangling of idiomatic expressions and his theory of baldness in Russian politics) and be moved to tears as Tooly finally uncovers her past. Certain passages will resonate with lovers of print books: “People kept their books, she thought, not because they were likely to read them again, but because these objects contained the past – the texture of being oneself at a particular place, at a particular time, each volume a piece of one’s intellect” and “Books, he said, are like mushrooms. They grow when you are not looking. Books increase by rule of compound interest: one interest leads to another interest, and this compounds into third. Next, you have so much interest there is no space in closet” and “To disappear into pages was to be blissfully obliterated. For the duration, all that existed was her companions in print; her own life went still”. Rachman touches on diverse topics: print books in the digital age; the idea of meritocracy; the link between vulnerability and courage; the legacy we leave when we die; the power of others to influence our view of life. The cover art of books end-on is cleverly done. This novel is both funny and thought-provoking: it will prompt readers to seek out Rachman’s earlier works to experience more of his unique style.

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Details

Bookseller
Armadillo Alley Books US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
2269
Title
The Rise and Fall of Great Powers
Author
Tom Rachman
Format/Binding
Cloth
Book Condition
New New
Jacket Condition
New
Quantity Available
1
Edition
First Edition / First Printing
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 10
0679643656
ISBN 13
9780679643654
Publisher
The Dial Press
Place of Publication
New York
Date Published
2014
Bookseller catalogs
First Editions; Signed Books;

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About the Seller

Armadillo Alley Books

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Carrollton, Texas

About Armadillo Alley Books

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Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

First Edition
In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Tight
Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
Jacket
Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Number Line
A series of numbers appearing on the copyright page of a book, where the lowest number generally indicates the printing of that...
Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
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"...
Bookplate
Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
Brodart
Generally used to refer to a clear plastic cover that is sometimes added to the dustjacket or outside covering of a book. The...
Title Page
A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...

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