SOUTHERN CROSS THE DOG

New York City, NY: Ecco Press, 2013. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Ecco Press, 2013. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 325 pages. The author's breakthrough debut novel. One of the most important literary debuts of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only that sold out shortly after publication. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Bill Cheng's "Southern Cross The Dog". Quirkily titled, epically evoked, beautifully written. "The bonds between three childhood friends are upended by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. In its aftermath, one young man must choose between the lure of the future and the claims of the past. Having lost virtually everything in the fearsome storm - home, family, first love - Robert Chatham embarks on an odyssey that takes him through the Deep South. Teeming with language that renders both the savage beauty and complex humanity of our shared past, a tour-de-force that heralds the arrival of a major new voice" (Publisher's blurb) . Despite its accessible prose, it is a demanding (but rewarding) read. Hailed by critics as our "Southern Gothic" novelist, the successor to Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, and Cormac McCarthy; the only other contemporary writer of comparable ambition and stature is Philipp Meyer ("American Rust") . An absolute "must-have" title for Bill Cheng collectors. This copy is very densely and beautifully signed, dated (shortly after publication) , and inscribed ("lined") in black ink-pen on the title page by the author: "5/20/13 'I look on you and I'm the one who has been left behind. Sometimes I can glimpse the world in which you live. It's a place better than this one - where our sons still live, and we are young, and your husband is a better man, and not this damned fool beside you, holding out his nigger heart'. Bill Cheng". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. This is the only such signed, post-publication dated, and inscribed ("lined") copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A rare signed copy thus. One of the most brilliant American novelists of our time. A fine copy. . ISBN 0062225006.