THE LAND OF GREEN PLUMS

New York City, NY: Metropolitan Books, 1996. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Metropolitan Books, 1996. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 242 pages. The author's second novel to be translated into English. One of the greatest novels of the 20th century. Review Copy. Review Material laid-in. The first appearance of the title in English and in the United States. 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. The DJ design is stunningly beautiful, utilizing an iconic image by the Czech photographer Jan Saudek from "Love, Life, Death & Other Such Trifles". The First Edition is now rare. Presents Herta Muller's "Herztier" in a felicitous English translation. Widely considered her masterpiece. It is one of the most ferocious indictments of Communist totalitarianism in novel form. In luminous, poetic, transparent prose (Muller's work would be unbearable were it not for the sheer beauty of her prose, which shines through even in translation) , she shows how an all-powerful state system "comes to inhabit every human realm and how everyone, even the strongest, must either bend to the oppressors or resist them and thereby perish" (Publisher's blurb) . As a portrait of how human beings become dehumanized, dispensable, and disposable, Muller's novel is one of the bleakest anyone is likely to encounter in modern literature. Muller shows in the most harrowing detail, interleaved with moments of irony and humor, how idealism reverts effortlessly to barbarism once it comes to power. Regarded as a national icon in Germany, "a living Goethe" (rhymes with Herta) , Muller was awarded the Nobel Prize on the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of Communism: "The Committee has recognized an author who refuses to let the inhumane side of life under Communism be forgotten". That is an implicit rebuke of Milan Kundera's famous (and frivolous) statement that "the condemnation of totalitarianism doesn't deserve a novel". Yes, it does, and in Muller's writing, what being human means in the context of a totalitarian system has a metaphysical lyricism. An absolute "must-have" title for Herta Muller collectors. This is a Review Copy. It is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Herta Muller. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. Muller made a rare and historic appearance at the 2012 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, during which her signature was obtained. Laid-in are the Review Material and a pristine copy of Philip Boehm's translation of her Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, which was distributed during the Festival. This title is a great book. As far as we know, this is the only such signed Review Copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (American) available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: It is NOT remainder-marked, as most copies of the book are (including one from us, priced accordingly) . A rare signed copy thus. Winner of The Kleist Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes given to writers in German, in 1994. Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1998 for "The Land of Green Plums". Winner of the European Literature Prize in 2006. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009. One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER HERTA MULLER TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0805042954.