LUKA AND THE FIRE OF LIFE: A NOVEL by Rushdie, Salman - 2010

New York City, NY: Random House, 2010. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Random House, 2010. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 218 pages. The author's eleventh novel. The companion volume to "Haroun and The Sea of Stories", the very first book the author published when he was still in deep hiding as a result of the fatwa issued against him by the late, unlamented Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The First Hardcover Edition. 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. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Salman Rushdie's "Luka And The Fire of Life". His dazzling companion-novel to "Haroun and The Sea of Stories". The latter was "born at a time of crisis in its author's life, and the fictional Haroun's quest to rescue his father's lost storytelling skills in a world in which stories themselves are being poisoned was a fable that responded to that crisis. 'Luka and The Fire of Life' is a response to a different, but equally great, danger: That an older father may not live to see his son grow up. In the earlier book, it was storytelling that was being threatened; in the new one, it is the storyteller who is at risk. The book grows out of the reality of my own life and my relationship with a very particular child. Luka is my son Milan's middle name just as Haroun is Zafar's. As well as the central theme of life and death, Luka explores things I have thought about all my life: The relationships between the world of imagination and the real world, between authoritarianism and liberty, between what is true and what is phony, and between ourselves and the gods that we create. It has been my aim to write a story that demolishes the boundary between 'adult' and 'children's' literature" (Salman Rushdie). An absolute "must-have" title for Salman Rushdie collectors. <b><i> This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Salman Rushdie. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce signed copy thus. </b></i> Winner of the Booker Prize in 1981 for "Midnight's Children", which was also selected as "The Booker of Bookers" in 1993, the best of all previous winners. One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER SALMAN RUSHDIE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0679463364.