Ingenious Pain

First edition. 8vo. Pp. [viii], 337. Brown cloth boards, lettered in silver to spine.

Inscribed by Miller to title page.

Author's literary debut. The rise, fall and redemption of a brilliant 18th century English surgeon whose congenital immunity to pain makes him oblivious to the suffering of others.

A 1997 New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Winner of the 1997 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, the 1997 Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy) for Best Foreign Fiction, and the 1999 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. In its citation, the judging panel of the latter commended its "fully imagined narrative world teeming with characters who dramatise the sensuality of the age," concluding "Ingenious Pain is a persuasive literary achievement".

A graduate of the University of East Anglia's Creative Writing Course (under Malcolm Bradbury, Rose Tremain and Lorna Sage), Miller completed his PhD at Lancaster University under the supervision of Professor David Craig. His novel, Pure, went on to win Best Novel and Book of the Year at the 2011 Costa Book Awards. "A dazzling debut." –The Observer