The Rising Sun

First edition. 8vo. Pp. [vi], 520, [2 (blank)]. Black cloth boards, lettered in gilt to spine; map illustrated endpapers.

A rare signed copy in mint condition.

Author's literary debut. Awarded the 2000 Saltire Award for Best First Novel. The story of Scotland's disastrous Darien Expedition of 1698 to establish a colony on the north coast of Panama, which bankrupted the country and precipitated the Act of Union on England's terms. As supposedly recorded by the flagship's superintendent of cargoes, Roderick Mackenzie. The book earned Galbraith the largest advance in Scottish publishing history for a first novel and enabled him to abandon the wine trade to focus solely on writing.

"[B]esides being a responsible historian, Galbraith is a powerfully imaginative storyteller and a stylish writer. Its publication propels [him] to a place among the very best of our historical novelists." –Mick Imlah, The Observer