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Roy-Bhattacharya, Joydeep : The Watch: A Novel

Hogarth Press, New York City, NY, 2012

ISBN 0307955893

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 290 pages. The author's third novel. One of the most important literary events of our time. 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. "Autographed Copy" sticker pasted in front. Presents Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya's "The Watch". His novel about the war in Afghanistan. Roy-Bhattacharya situates the never-ending Afghan war "classically", in the context of ancient Greek mythology, particularly Sophocles' "Antigone", the iconic Western narrative about the clash between ethics ("moral law") and politics ("the rule of law"). "A legless woman approaches a military outpost in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province, ostensibly to retrieve the body of her brother, who has been killed in a firefight. Having survived that firefight, the soldiers inside the compound are wary and edgy. That's the set-up to a taut and gritty story that unfolds amid the dust, shadows, and unease of the war in Afghanistan. As the woman refuses to leave, and questions mount about her true intentions, everything comes into question: What's right and wrong? Heartfelt, heartbreaking, and lyrical, a primal and beautiful work" (Neal Thompson). A scholar of political science, a peripatetic journalist, and a philosopher, the Indian-born American writer has published two ambitious novels, "The Gabriel Club" (1998, published in the United Kingdom only) and "The Storyteller of Marrakesh" (2011). The former is a meditation on the failure of Communism, the latter an homage to Scheherazade's "Thousand And One Nights". Roy-Bhattacharya is a rare bird in contemporary literature. A novelist of ideas, with a brilliant twist: He turns to ancient myths and narratives in order to illuminate the most pressing issues of our time. "We watch as the resistance of an isolated American garrison in Afghanistan is ground down, not by force of arms, but by the will of a single unarmed woman, holding inflexibly to an idea of what is just and right" (J. M. Coetzee). "The Watch" is the inaugural title of Random House's revival of Hogarth Press, the legendary imprint founded by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. Nothing less than a defiant act of resistance to our Digital Age, the new Hogarth Press will (audaciously) publish books in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada simultaneously. An absolute "must-have" title for Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya collectors. This Autographed Copy is very boldly, beautifully, and elaborately signed, placed, and dated (in the month and year of publication) in black pen on the title page by the author: "Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya June 25 2012 NYC". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. His signature fills up the whole page. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed, placed, and publication-month dated 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. One of the most brilliant new voices in contemporary literature. A fine copy. . ISBN 0307955893.

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