THAT OLD ACE IN THE HOLE - A NOVEL.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn. FINE+/FINE+. No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj - virtually as new. Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated,wrap-around portrait colour photographic illustrated dw/dj,with b/w+brown lettering; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks,tears or splits present.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner tips - unread? Bright, crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,pale beige paper-covered boards with bright,crisp,blocked black ink letters to spine/backstrip,gold+beige headband and sewn in silk bookmark ribbon,and immaculate plain fluorescent orange endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,vii-xiipp [paginated]+1-361pp [paginated] includes contents list/table,acknowledgements,33 chapters and author's note to rear; plus [unpaginated],half-title+title pages,a dedication,a title separator page,German quotation,a note about the author and 4pp blanks at rear. Bob Dollar is a reluctant land swindler. When the 25-year-old protagonist in Annie Proulx's That Old Ace in the Hole signs on as a location scout for Global Pork Rind,an industrial hog farming corporation,he has no idea what kind of moral quandaries he's in for. Well, maybe he does.His assignment,after all,is to infiltrate a tiny town in the Texas Panhandle and find a tract of land his employer can turn into an industrial hog farm. Bob tells the locals he's scouting for luxury home developers ("They feel there is potential here"),but as a cover story it's less than clever.Only a fool would build mansions in the godforsaken Panhandle country, a place of light soil,bad wind,killing drought,and end-of-world thunder. "To live here," one Panhandler tells Bob, "it sure helps if you are half cow and half mesquite and all crazy." The narrative follows Bob's hapless quest to ink a deal,but Proulx's mission is bigger than that.She's out to tell the story of the Panhandle itself,to write an entirely new literary territory into existence.With the help of a menagerie of eccentric characters set down in "the most complicated part of North America," Proulx succeeds admirably. - Claire Dederer. With characteristic gusto and razor wit,Annie Proulx serves up a rich mix of history,landscape and quixotic Texan life in this novel about chasing dreams in a corporate world. Annie Proulx published her first novel 'Postcards' in 1991 at the age of 56.She is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Shipping News',the acclaimed novel, 'Accordion Crimes',the best-selling short story collection,'Close Range',and an earlier short story collection,'Heart Songs.' Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas customers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded, after order's receipt and before the order's despatch, especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always. **