The Comfort of Strangers

First edition. 8vo. Pp. 134, [2]. Publisher's brown cloth, lettered and ruled in gilt to spine. Jacket illustration by Mon Mohan, reproducing a Turner watercolour of the Grand Canal, Venice (priced £5.50 net to front flap).

Signed by Author to title page. Two-toned textblock due to differential stock used, else Fine sans the usual fading to d/w spine that this title is prone to.

McEwan's second full length novel – shortlisted for the 1981 Booker Prize. Whilst on holiday in Venice, a young couple meet a man with a disturbing story to tell and gradually become drawn into a fantasy of obsession and violence. Basis for the 1990 movie, directed by Paul Schrader and with a screenplay by Harold Pinter; it starred Rupert Everett, Christopher Walken, Helen Mirren and Natasha Richardson. "An exquisite miniature gothic." –Chicago Tribune