Premier sang

Name: Premier sang
SKU: 30156
Author: Amélie Nothomb

Paris, Albin Michel, (June) 2021.

1 vol. (140 x 210 mm) of 170 p., [5] and 1 f. In wrappers, uncut, in a chemise and slipcase.

First edition. One of the first 35 copies on vergé de Hollande paper (no. 16).

Amélie Nothomb’s father, Patrick, died in March 2020, during the pandemic lockdown, and she was unable to say goodbye to him.

She decided to dedicate Premier Sang to him, bringing him back to life by having him speak in the first person. The book is far from anodyne: it is a particularly intimate work, and one that caught the attention of both critics and the jury of a major literary prize, the Prix Renaudot, which crowned it in November, for Nothomb’s thirty-second novel.

A very fine copy, in as-new condition.
Prix Renaudot 2021.

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[VERBATIM]

“I am led before the firing squad. Time stretches out, each second lasting a century longer than the last. I am twenty-eight years old. Before me, death wears the faces of twelve executioners. Custom dictates that among the weapons distributed, one is loaded with a blank. Thus each man may believe himself innocent of the murder about to be carried out. I doubt that this tradition was observed today. None of these men seems to need the possibility of innocence.” (Premier Sang, p. 9)

#30156

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