The Manchurian Candidate

New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959. First edition. Very Good +/Very Good +. A Very Good+ copy of the book in like dust jacket. Book with the spine a bit cocked, some rubbing along the spine edges and ends, and a small previous owner's name on the front end paper. Dust jacket with just a bit of chipping at the spine ends, and slight fading.

An extraordinarily cogent political thriller about a member of an influential family who is brainwashed by Soviets into becoming a Communist assassin. Adapted to film in both 1962 and 2004, Condon's novel continues to be relevant to audiences today. When Eleanor Iselin is contacted by Soviets about the possibility of installing her McCarthy-esque husband and senator Johnny into the presidency, she works with the KGB to program her son Shaw as a sleeper agent. Unbeknownst to Shaw, he has been hypnotized and is under the control of Eleanor, who can activate him for violent assignments that never enter the front of his consciousness. Unaware of the actions he takes, Shaw never feels guilt and can never publicly betray what he is. By the novel's end, when it is Shaw's mission to assassinate the president so that his father, now VP, can gain office and assume dictatorial powers during national emergency, Shaw turns the gun instead on his parents and himself. Very Good + in Very Good + dust jacket.