First edition in English. 8vo. Pp. [iv], 342, [6 (blank)]. Black cloth boards, lettered in gilt to spine; navy blue endpapers. Wrap-around jacket features detail of Fortunato Depero's 1920 sketch for the ballet The New Babel, titled Grattacieli e tunnel.
Signed by Author to title page. Faint toning to page edges, else Fine.
Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein.
Author's fifth novel. A number-one bestseller upon first publication in Italy, by Rizzoli, in 1999. "City is an important title for me, because it expresses what this book has always been in my head. A city. No particular city. An impression of a city rather. Its skeleton. I thought of the stories I had in mind as if they were neighbourhoods. And I imagined characters as if they were streets."
The improbable relationship between two untethered souls: Gould, a thirteen-year-old genius, and Shatzy Shell, his thirtysomething governess. Baricco's novels have won numerous literary awards, including the Prix Médicis Étranger in France and the Selezione Campiello, Viareggio, and Palazzo al Bosco prizes in Italy. "Baricco has inventiveness in spades, and his freaks have the capacity to chill the blood or warm the heart." –Jane Ciabattari, Los Angeles Times Book Review