Oryx and Crake; Elle; The Kite Runner; Dancer; The Cutting Room; The In-Betwen World of Vikram Lall + International Festival of Authors 2003 Program (Signed by Multiple Authors)

Signed by (Atwood, Margaret; Ondaatje, Michael; Adderson, Caroline; Barry, Sebastian; Borinsky, Alicia; Byatt, A. S; Coe, Jonathan; Coupland, Douglas; Crace, Jim; Creeley, Robert; Dunmore, Helen; Fjorde, Jasper; Fielding, Joy; Gibson, William; Glover, Douglas; Guterson, David; Hamilton, Hugo; Hazard, Shirley; Hosseini, Khaled; Ignatieff, Michael; Itani, Francis, Lively, Penelope; Donoghue, Emma; MacDonald, Ann-Marie; McCann, Colum; Phillips, Caryl; Proulx, Monique; Raczymow, Henri; Rhodes, Dan; Richards, David Adams; Robinson, Peter; Sakamoto, Kerri; Moacyr, Scliar; Schmitter, Elke; Smith, Ali; Trapido, Barbara; Vassanji, M.G. Welsh, Louise; Woronov, Mary; Bowering, George; Uppal Priscila; Bok, Christian; Nurse, Donna)

ISBN 10: 0771008686 / ISBN 13: 9780771008689

Published by Various, 2003

About this Item

This is a ONE OF A KIND listing of major publications released in 2003, featuring an author signed copy of the 2003 International Festival of Authors Program. In addition to the Program which is signed by ALL the listed authors, signed copies of the following are included; ORYX & CRAKE (Canadian First Edition and First Printing - signed by Margaret Atwood), THE KITE RUNNER (Canadian First Edition and First Printing - signed by Kaled Hosseini), ELLE (Canadian First Edition and First Printing - signed and Lined by Douglas Glover, Governor General's Literary Award Winner), DANCER (USA First Edition and First Printing - signed by Colum McCann), THE CUTTING ROOM (Canadian First Edition and First Printing - signed by Louise Welsh) and THE IN-BETWEEN WORLD OF VIKRAM LALL (Canadian First Edition and First Printing - signed by M. G. Vassanji, Giller Prize Winner). The International Festival of Authors 2003 Program is signed by Fourty (40) plus authors at their respective program biography, as listed, including; Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje (on cover), Kaled Hosseini, Colum McCann, Louise Welsh, William Gibson, Shirley Hazzard, Douglas Coupland, Jasper Fjord, Sebastian Barry, A.S. Byatt, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Hugo Hamilton, David Guterson, Emma Donoghue, Peter Robinson. Ali Smith and M.G. Vassanji. A "One Of A Kind" listing. Images of the 2003 IFOA Program are attached; additional images upon request.

Seller Inventory # 003430

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Oryx and Crake; Elle; The Kite Runner; Dancer; The Cutting Room; The In-Betwen World of Vikram Lall + International Festival of Authors 2003 Program (Signed by Multiple Authors)
• Publisher: Various
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0771008686
• ISBN 13: 9780771008689
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

Book by ATWOOD, Margaret

Review

In Oryx and Crake, a science fiction novel that is more Swift than Heinlein, more cautionary tale than "fictional science" (no flying cars here), Margaret Atwood depicts a near-future world that turns from the merely horrible to the horrific, from a fool's paradise to a bio-wasteland. Snowman (a man once known as Jimmy) sleeps in a tree and just might be the only human left on our devastated planet. He is not entirely alone, however, as he considers himself the shepherd of a group of experimental, human-like creatures called the Children of Crake. As he scavenges and tends to his insect bites, Snowman recalls in flashbacks how the world fell apart.

While the story begins with a rather ponderous set-up of what has become a clichéd landscape of the human endgame, littered with smashed computers and abandoned buildings, it takes on life when Snowman recalls his boyhood meeting with his best friend Crake: "Crake had a thing about him even then.... He generated awe ... in his dark laconic clothing." A dangerous genius, Crake is the book's most intriguing character. Crake and Jimmy live with all the other smart, rich people in the Compounds--gated company towns owned by biotech corporations. (Ordinary folks are kept outside the gates in the chaotic "pleeblands.") Meanwhile, beautiful Oryx, raised as a child prostitute in Southeast Asia, finds her way to the West and meets Crake and Jimmy, setting up an inevitable love triangle. Eventually Crake's experiments in bioengineering cause humanity's shockingly quick demise (with uncanny echoes of SARS, ebola, and mad cow disease), leaving Snowman to try to pick up the pieces. There are a few speed bumps along the way, including some clunky dialogue and heavy-handed symbols such as Snowman's broken watch, but once the bleak narrative gets moving, as Snowman sets out in search of the laboratory that seeded the world's destruction, it clips along at a good pace, with a healthy dose of wry humor. --Mark Frutkin, Amazon.ca