NANJING REQUIEM by Jin, Ha - 2011

New York City, NY: Pantheon Books, 2011. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/As New Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Pantheon Books, 2011. Hardcover. As New/As New. First Edition/First Printing. 310 pages. The author's fifth novel. One of the finest novels 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 Ha Jin's "Nanjing Requiem". The novel that Ha Jin's trajectory as an immigrant Chinese writer in English inexorably led to as a matter of necessity. The Rape of Nanjing is one of the defining events of modern China. To make it the subject of a novel (beautifully called a "requiem") is to take on the ultimate challenge for a writer whose work melds poetic lyricism with Tolstoyan grand narrative. "Delivers glimpses of the massacre in all its reeling madness: The young woman who is driven insane by her manifold violations; the ways violence can smite the spirit even when the body is spared; the sight of 'shells bursting in the air like black blossoms'. Ha Jin gives us a poignant twist in the fate of the narrator Anling, whose grown son just happens to be in Tokyo taking a Japanese wife when all hell is being unleashed in his homeland" (The Washington Post). "His is a concern with precision, honesty, and direct description; the restraint is deliberate. Though his subject is deeply disquieting, Ha Jin does not set out to shock. The power of his prose lies not in any self-indulgent flourish but in its far-reaching resonance" (Open Letters Monthly). An absolute "must-have" title for Ha Jin collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Ha Jin. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for "Ocean of Words". Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award For Short Fiction for "Under the Red Flag". Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the National Book Award in 1999 for "Waiting". One of the finest writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER HA JIN TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0307379760.