THE GROUND BENEATH HER FEET

London, England: Jonathan Cape, 1999. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. London, England: Jonathan Cape, 1999. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 575 pages. The author's seventh novel. Now considered a contemporary classic. 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 "The Ground Beneath Her Feet". An epic romance, written in the author's celebrated and dazzlingly pyrotechnical, virtuoso style. The novel stretches across whole lives and even beyond death. A remaking of the myth of Orpheus and an exploration of the extremities of comedy, culture, and death, Rushdie re-imagines Orpheus, the Muse of Music, as a rock star. The book is his homage to rock n' roll, a major influence on his writing. "A gripping story that encapsulates the history, dreams, and passions of the last half century as no other novel has done. Rushdie tells the story of Vina Apsara, a pop star, and Ormus Cama, a songwriter and musician, who captivate and change the world through their music and their romance. Beginning in Bombay in the Fifties, moving to London in the Sixties, and New York for the last quarter century, the novel pulsates with a half-century of music and celebrates the power of rock 'n roll" (Publisher's blurb). The novel is now seen as a precursor of the "global novel", for lack of a better term, the new paradigm of the 21st-century, replacing the now quaintly old-fashioned "Great American Novel". The sprawling, all-encompassing, and ambitious novel which captures reality in all of its elusive richness and complexity has been the obsession not just of American literature but of all national literary cultures. Meanwhile, the world has changed, radically, dramatically, and unrecognizably, leaving personal literary ambitions in the dust. For better or for worse, the world is more global than it has ever been, whether one lives in (and writes about) America, Australia, Singapore or Madagascar. "This is Rushdie at his absolute, almost insolently global best. Completely seductive" (Toni Morrison). An absolute "must-have" title for Salman Rushdie collectors. 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. It comes with a rare and pristine copy of the lovely Souvenir Material of the event during which his signature was obtained. 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. 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. 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 0224044192.