The Pleasing Hour

First edition. 8vo. Pp. [x], 237, [2]. Quarter-bound red cloth over red paper-covered boards, lettered in gilt to spine; blind-stamped 'A' to front board. Jacket design by Charles Rue Woods with art by Michael Tedesco (priced $24 to front flap).

A 1999 New York Times Notable Book. Massachusetts author's first book, winner of the 1999 Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award. Recipient of the Raymond Carver Prize for Fiction while a graduate student at Syracuse University. A coming-of-age story about an American au pair who takes up a post in Paris after undergoing an anguishing loss. "Lily King's splendid new novel, The Pleasing Hour, consists of one beginning after another, all so assured that it's hard to believe the book itself is her debut." –Jacqueline Carey, The New York Times Book Review