Published by HarperCollins, London; 1991. 8vo. 286pp. First edition, first impression. Condition: Fine/Near Fine.
Bound in original red cloth boards with title in gilt to the spine. Binding is square and tight and in excellent condition, with no marks or damage, save a touch of bumping to the spine ends. Inside, the pages are clean and bright, free from blemishes and wear.
The book is housed in its original, first issue dust jacket. It is vibrant and bright and in equally smart condition, with just a some fading to the spine and a touch of bumping to the spine ends.
In all, this is a lovely example of this first edition by J. G. Ballard, sequel to Empire of the Sun, his award winning autobiographical novel of World War II. It follows Jim after the war as he travels to England during the post war years. It is a true novel of ideas: a portrait of the postwar world, wide-ranging in its settings and its concerns, and consistently inventive and penetrating in its insights. It is also the warmest and most passionate of his novels: a graphically honest but often surprisingly tender story. And, as before, Ballard - by putting himself in the centre of his own fiction - creates a remarkable and unflinchingly honest hybrid of autobiography and novel, truthful in its self-portrayal, fictional in its other characters and incidents (blurb).