THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS

First edition, first printing. Signed by the author. Original brown paper-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine, in the Mon Mohan designed dustwrapper, reproducing a watercolour of the Grand Canal in Venice by J. M. W. Turner. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth bright and fresh. The contents, with some toning to the poor quality paper-stock, are otherwise clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the fine original dustwrapper that is without fading, loss or tears. Not price-clipped (£5.50 on the front flap).

Signed by Ian McEwan in black ink on the title page. Although the city remains unnamed, McEwan's second novel clearly takes its place in a long line of fictional works to portray Venice as a setting for the menacing and unsettling. The novel was shortlisted for the 1981 Booker Prize and later adapted for the 1990 film (unambiguously set in Venice) directed by Paul Schrader with a screenplay by Harold Pinter and starring Christopher Walken, Helen Mirren, Natasha Richardson and Rupert Everett.