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Englander, Nathan : The Ministry Of Special Cases

Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, NY, 2007

ISBN 0375404937

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 339 pages. The author's debut novel. Now considered a contemporary classic. 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 Nathan Englander's "The Ministry of Special Cases". His triumphant first novel. "Young writers are often told to write about what they know. But the real trick to writing about what you know is to make sure you know MORE as you mature. The novel is set in 1976 in Buenos Aires during Argentina's 'Dirty War'. Kaddish Poznan, hijo de puta, son of a whore, earns a meager living defacing gravestones of Jewish whores and pimps whose more respectable children want to erase their immigrant parents' names and forget their shameful activities. Kaddish labors in the Jewish cemetery at night. His hardworking wife, Lillian, toils in an insurance agency, and their idealistic son, Pato, attends college, goes to concerts, and smokes pot with his friends. When Pato is taken from home, Kaddish learns what it really means to erase identity because no one in authority will admit Pato has been arrested. No one will even acknowledge that Pato exists. As Lillian and Kaddish attempt to penetrate The Ministry of Special Cases, Englander's novel takes on an epic quality in which Jewish parents descend into the underworld and journey through circles of hell. Gogol, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Orwell all come to mind, but Englander's book is unique in its layering of Jewish tradition and totalitarian obliteration" (Allegra Goodman). An absolute "must-have" title for Nathan Englander collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Nathan Englander. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. Laid-in are pristine copies of the Souvenir Materials of the event during which his signature was obtained. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: The DJ design, in keeping with the novel's "old documents" theme, is very realistically rendered/printed as though it has wear and tear. It does NOT have any such flaws. A scarce signed copy thus. Selected by The New Yorker Magazine as one of "Twenty Writers for the 21st Century". One of the most brilliant American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER NATHAN ENGLANDER TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0375404937.

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