TWO LIVES - Scarce Pristine Copy of The First American Edition/First Printing: Signed And Dated (In The Year of Publication) by Vikram Seth - SIGNED ON THE TITLE PAGE

Seth, Vikram

ISBN 10: 1435283503 / ISBN 13: 9781435283503

Published by New York City, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005

About this Item

1st Printing. Signed. 512 pages. Published in 2005. The author's debut memoir. One of Vikram Seth's finest achievements. The first appearance of the title in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a regular first print run as a hardcover original only. Presents Vikram Seth's "Two Lives". Once again, a fresh twist to a familiar genre, the family memoir this time, by the innovative author. "In 1969, Seth, 17, came from Calcutta to London to continue his education and to stay with his Uncle Shanti and Aunt Henny. Their relationship became warm and it is their stories that Seth tells in this wide-ranging, unpredictable, and moving account. Shanti was a dentist who studied in Berlin, lodging with Frau Caro, whose daughter, Henny, was in love with someone else. He left for Britain in 1936 because he couldn't practice in Germany. In 1940, as the war broke out, he enlisted, served throughout, and lost his right arm in combat, a calamity for a dentist. Meanwhile, Henny, a German-Jew, arrived in Britain weeks before war was declared, leaving her beloved mother and sister behind. They eventually died in the death camps. Henny's story is based on a trove of remarkable letters she received and wrote, many to friends in Germany during the war. Seth's complex but beautifully lucid summation of his research into these lives has given us this lovely memoir. As it examines great events seen through extraordinary lives, written in limpid and elegant language, Seth explores the macrocosm through the microcosm, resulting in a most unusual and remarkable book" (Publisher's blurb). An absolute "must-have" title for Vikram Seth collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed and dated (in the year of publication) in black ink-pen on the title page by the author: "Vikram Seth 14 XI '05". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. His signature on this copy is one of the most beautiful we have ever seen. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed and publication-month dated copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (American) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A scarce signed copy thus. One of the most brilliant writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER VIKRAM SETH TITLES IN OUR CATALOG) ISBN 1435283503. Seller Inventory # 23584

Bibliographic Details

Title: TWO LIVES - Scarce Pristine Copy of The ...

Publisher: New York City, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: As New

Dust Jacket Condition: As New

Signed: Signed by Author

Edition: 1st Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

Widely acclaimed as one of the world's greatest living writers, Vikram Seth -- author of the international bestseller A Suitable Boy -- tells the heartrending true story of a friendship, a marriage, and a century. Weaving together the strands of two extraordinary lives -- Shanti Behari Seth, an immigrant from India who came to Berlin to study in the 1930s, and Helga Gerda Caro, the young German Jewish woman he befriended and later married -- Two Lives is both a history of a violent era seen through the eyes of two survivors and an intimate, unforgettable portrait of a complex, abiding love.

About the Author:

Vikram Seth has written acclaimed books in several genres: verse novel, The Golden Gate; travel book, From Heaven Lake; animal fables, Beastly Tales; epic fiction, A Suitable Boy. His most recent novel, An Equal Music, was published in 1999. He lives in England and India.