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Munro, Alice : Dear Life: Stories

Douglas Gibson Books, Toronto, 2012

ISBN 9780771064869

Alice Munro's peerless ability to give us the essence of a life in often brief but always spacious and timeless stories is once again everywhere apparent in this brilliant new collection. In story after story, she illumines the moment a life is forever altered by a chance encounter or an action not taken, or by a simple twist of fate that turns a person out of his or her accustomed path and into a new way of being or thinking. A poet, finding herself in alien territory at her first literary party, is rescued by a seasoned newspaper columnist, and is soon hurtling across the continent, young child in tow, toward a hoped-for but completely unplanned meeting. A young soldier, returning to his fiancée from the Second World War, steps off the train before his stop and onto the farm of another woman, beginning a life on the move. A wealthy young woman having an affair with the married lawyer hired by her father to handle his estate comes up with a surprising way to deal with the blackmailer who finds them out.While most of these stories take place in Munro's home territory -- the small Canadian towns around Lake Huron -- the characters sometimes venture to the cities, and the book ends with four pieces set in the area where she grew up, and in the time of her own childhood: stories "autobiographical in feeling, though not, sometimes, entirely so in fact." Suffused with Munro's clarity of vision and her unparalleled gift for storytelling, these tales about departures and beginnings, accidents and dangers, and outgoings and homecomings both imagined and real, paint a radiant, indelible portrait of how strange, perilous, and extraordinary ordinary life can be.319p. Initial with date on ffep, else as new. Book. Book Condition: As New. Binding: Hardcover. Jacket: As New

1st Canadian Edition.

Munro, Alice : Dear Life: Stories

Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, NY, 2012

ISBN 0307596885

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 340 pages. The author's fourteenth collection of short stories. One of Alice Munro's finest achievements. The first appearance of the title in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. "Autographed Copy" sticker pasted in front. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Alice Munro's "Dear Life: Stories". Her valedictory collection, announced as such by the author in 2012. But after winning the Nobel Prize in 2013, her publishers immediately issued a new retrospective collection beautifully entitled "Family Furnishings" (2014). "Breathes life - real, blemished, nuanced life - into her characters and settings. Her empathy is the greatest weapon in her arsenal, and it is on full display here. But the most satisfying part is the last four stories, bundled together in what the author calls 'Finale', the closest she'll ever come to writing about her own dear life" (Alexandra Foster). "Our Chekhov" (Cynthia Ozick). "A stunningly precise writer who is often able to say more in 30 pages than an ordinary novelist is capable of in 300. Munro writes about what are usually called ordinary people, but her intelligence, compassion, and astonishing power of perception enable her to give their lives a remarkable dignity, indeed redemption, since she shows how much of The Extraordinary can fit into that jam-packed emptiness called The Ordinary" (Nobel Prize Citation). An absolute "must-have" title for Alice Munro collectors. This Autographed Copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the publisher's tipped-in page by Alice Munro. This title is a great book. This is one of few such signed copies of the First American Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Alice Munro's publisher issued a very limited number of pre-signed copies to celebrate the book's publication. Throughout her long career, Munro made few public appearances, and is a reluctant signer at best. As such, most of her books are signed on a bookplate, which are much less desirable than copies signed on either the title page or tipped-in page. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013. One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ALICE MUNRO TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0307596885.

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Munro, Alice : Dear Life: Stories

Alred A. Knopf, N Y, 2012

ISBN 9780307596888

A clean, unmarked book with a tight binding. Full green cloth boards. Stated First Edition. Signed by Alice Munro on endpaper. Contains these stories: To Reach Japan; Amundesen; Leaving Maverley; Gravel; Haven; Pride; Corrie; Train; In Sight of the Lake; Dolly; The Eye; Night; Voices; Dear Life. Alice Munro is the recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature and the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of work, she is also a three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's Award for fiction.. Fiction. Book Condition: Fine. Binding: Hard Cover. Jacket: Fine

First Edition
Signed by Author