The Flood

First paperback edition. 8vo. Pp. 188, [4, blank]. Glossy cream wraps, printed in black and red. Cover illustration by Kerry Kirkwood (priced £4.95 to rear panel). Signed by Author to title page with his characteristic 'noughts & crosses' motif. Reading creases to spine displaying moderate lean, former ownership insignia to verso of front cover, faint stamp and jotted price (25p) to rear inside cover, a couple of folded page corners, some (easily-erasable) pencil underlinings to text, light rubbing to cover edges, else Very Good.

Rankin's first novel, "started life as a short story, but soon took on a life of its own". Heavy with symbolism and allegory, and set in the Fife town where the author grew up, the story concerns a single mother, ostracised as a young girl after falling into a flood of chemical run-off. Written while Rankin was working towards his doctorate in Scottish literature and published by Polygon, a student-run press at Edinburgh University in a limited print run of 300 hardbacks (200 according to the author) and 750 trade paperbacks – this being one of the latter.