BLIND WILLOW, SLEEPING WOMAN

First edition in English, first printing. One of 85 copies, signed by the author. Publisher's original red cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in dustwrapper. A fine copy, the binding square and tight, bright and fresh. The contents are clean throughout and without previous owners' marks. Complete with the fine original dustwrapper that is without fading, loss or tears. Not price-clipped (£16.99 net to the lower front flap). A lovely copy of the UK first edition, offered here in its scarcest form.

One of 85 copies of the trade edition issued by the publisher with a hand numbered plate to the front endpaper, signed by Haruki Murakami. This example is numbered 71. Beware of expensive imitations (only those individually numbered, on this specific bookplate, constitute the publisher's signed first edition). The collection was also issued in a slipcased edition of 1000 copies (without dustwrapper), produced for Waterstones all of which are hand-numbered by the publisher and signed by Haruki Murakami on a bookplate exclusive to that issue. A collection of twenty-four stories written between 1980 and 2005. Winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. This British edition precedes both the Japanese and American editions. "I find writing novels a challenge, writing stories a joy. If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden" - Haruki Murakami (from the introduction).