A Suitable Boy

First edition. First state with light olive green endpapers (this was followed by a second state in light brown endpapers). Thick royal 8vo. Pp. [xvi], 1349, [11 (blank)]. Publisher's red cloth boards, stamped in gilt to spine. Photographic dustwrapper designed by Chris Shamwana (priced at £20 to front flap). Contents page lists chapters in rhyming couplet form. Genealogy charts included. A special edition limited to 100 signed copies (plus 26 lettered copies with a holograph quotation from the text), were published concurrently by Sixth Chamber Press, London.

Signed by Author to title page. Light toning to textblock edges, else Fine.

Winner of both the 1994 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book Overall, and the WH Smith Literary Award. At a staggering 591,552 words, the longest single-volume novel ever published in English. A multiple extended families saga set in newly independent, post-partition India, which follows Mrs. Rupa Mehra's efforts to find a suitable husband for her youngest daughter, Lata. Publication of a long-promised sequel, to be called A Suitable Girl, has been repeatedly delayed. "Puts a subcontinent between its covers. [A] massive and magnificent book." –The Sunday Times