A Void Paperback - 1995

London, UK: Harvill Press. Very Good+. 1995. First Edition Thus; First Printing. Paperback. First Edition Thus in the UK (1995) ; First Printing, so stated, but this is a REMAINDER, showing a mark at the bottom edge of the text block. Else, Very Good+ in Wraps: shows mild wear to the corner tips; the binding is square and secure; the text is clean. Free of creases to the panels. Free of creases to the back-strip. Free of any creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of any underlining, hi-lighting or marginalia or marks in the text. Free of any ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, plates, or labels. A handsome copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing mild wear. Bright and clean. NOT Book-Club or Ex-Library. 8vo (8.5 x 5.35 x 0.75 inches). Translated by Gilbert Adair. Language: English. Weight: 12.5 ounces. Black and Rust-Red design to the panels on a white background field. Crossed out "E" design at the front panel. First published in French in 1969. This translation published in hardcover in 1994. Trade Paperback. As his country is torn apart by social and political anarchy, Anton Vowl, a chronic insomniac, disappears. Ransacking his Paris flat, a group of his faithful companions trawl through his diary for any indication, for any faint hint, as to his location. Perec lost his mother in the Holocaust. A Void is precisely about the difficulty of speaking in the absence of the most necessary thing. Not merely an intellectual tour de force -- although certainly that -- but one of the most subtle things ever written on grief. The book has a killer, loopy, murder mystery plot, and at the same time manages to be a deeply felt meditation on absence and the way absences constitute our lives. Lots in common with Derrida, etc. The translation is a work of genius/insanity. I can't imagine a better job being done. As much a masterpiece of translation as a novel, A Void contains not one single letter 'e' anywhere in the main body of the text. This clever and unusual novel is full of plots and sub-plots, of trails in pursuit of trails and linguistic conjuring tricks; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; xi, 284 pages .