Census (Signed First Edition)

Jesse Ball

ISBN 10: 006267613X / ISBN 13: 9780062676139

Published by Ecco (New York), 2018

About this Item

First printing (with full number sequence including the 1). Very Fine in a very fine dust jacket. A tight, clean copy, new and unread. Comes with archival-quality mylar dust jacket protector. NOT price clipped. Shipped in well padded box. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page--the author's name only, with no inscriptions-- and dated by him him in the month of publication, April 2018. Purchased new and opened only for author signature. You cannot find a better copy.

Seller Inventory # signed-fiction-417

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Census (Signed First Edition)
• Publisher: Ecco (New York)
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 006267613X
• ISBN 13: 9780062676139
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

NAMED A RECOMMENDED BOOK OF 2018 BY

The New York Times • Buzzfeed • Esquire • Nylon •  The Boston Globe • The Huffington Post • The Chicago Tribune • The Rumpus  • The AV Club • Southern Living • The Millions • The Chicago Reader • Kirkus • Publishers Weekly • NPR

A powerful and moving new novel from an award-winning, acclaimed author: in the wake of a devastating revelation, a father and son journey north across a tapestry of towns

When a widower receives notice from a doctor that he doesn’t have long left to live, he is struck by the question of who will care for his adult son—a son whom he fiercely loves, a boy with Down syndrome. With no recourse in mind, and with a desire to see the country on one last trip, the man signs up as a census taker for a mysterious governmental bureau and leaves town with his son. 

Traveling into the country, through towns named only by ascending letters of the alphabet, the man and his son encounter a wide range of human experience. While some townspeople welcome them into their homes, others who bear the physical brand of past censuses on their ribs are wary of their presence. When they press toward the edges of civilization, the landscape grows wilder, and the towns grow farther apart and more blighted by industrial decay. As they approach “Z,” the man must confront a series of questions: What is the purpose of the census? Is he complicit in its mission? And just how will he learn to say good-bye to his son? 

Mysterious and evocative, Census is a novel about free will, grief, the power of memory, and the ferocity of parental love, from one of our most captivating young writers.

About the Author

Jesse Ball is the author of fifteen books, and his works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He is on the faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a winner of The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize for Fiction and the Gordon Burn Prize, and was long-listed for the National Book Award.