THE GREAT FIRE

New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 278 pages. The author's fourth novel, after a twenty-year hiatus. One of the most important literary events of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Shirley Jazzard's "The Great Fire". Published to enormous critical acclaim, the DJ has blurbs by Michael Cunningham, Joan Didion, and Ann Patchett. "Hazzard is nothing if not discriminating. Hierarchies of feeling, perception, and taste abound in her writing, and this novel takes on the very notion of what it means to be civilized. The fire of the title refers primarily to the atomic bombing of Japan, but also to the possibility of transcendent passion in its aftermath. In 1947, a thirty-two-year-old English war hero visiting Hiroshima during the American Occupation finds himself billeted in a compound overseen by a boorish Australian brigadier and his scheming wife. He is immediately enchanted, however, by the couple's children, who prove to be prisoners in a different sort of conflict. Hazzard's moral refinement is counter-balanced by her bracing conviction that we either build or destroy the world we want to live in with our every word and gesture" (The New Yorker Magazine). A masterpiece. An absolute "must-have" title for Shirley Hazzard collectors. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. Winner of the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2003 for "The Great Fire". Winner of the William Howells Medal for Best Novel Published In The Last Five Years. One of the finest novelists of our time. A fine copy. . ISBN 0374166447.