The Means of Escape

First US edition. 8vo. Pp. [viii], 117, [1]. Quarter-bound in black cloth over salmon coloured boards, stamped in gilt to spine; deckled fore-edges. Jacket design by Michaela Sullivan.

Posthumous and only collection of short stories originally published in newspapers and anthologies. Miniature studies of the endless absurdity of human behaviour, they range across time and place, exploring the shifting fortunes of class and wealth. By the author of the acclaimed The Blue Flower (1995). Perennially short-listed for the Booker Prize, Fitzgerald won it in 1979 with Offshore. Selected as one of the '50 greatest British writers since 1945' by The Times in 2008. "Crisp, with the economical suggestiveness of poetry, these stories will be treasured by Fitzgerald's readers." –Publishers Weekly