THE LOST FATHER

London, England: Faber & Faber, 1992. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. London, England: Faber & Faber, 1992. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 506 pages. The author's second novel. Now considered a contemporary classic. The first appearance of the title in the United Kingdom. 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 British Edition is now scarce. Presents Mona Simpson's "The Lost Father". A dark sequel to her luminous debut novel, "Anywhere But Here". In her highly acclaimed first novel, Mona Simpson created one of the most astute yet vulnerable heroines in contemporary fiction, Mayan Atassi, formerly Mayan Stevenson. Simpson returns in a powerful novel about love and loveless-ness, fathers and fatherless-ness, and the loyalties that shape us even when they threaten to destroy us. "A breathtaking piece of fiction. Simpson is a writer who can break our heart and mend it in the same sentence" (The Cleveland Plain Dealer). While she has strenuously denied it, there is no question that both novels (and a third one) are autobiographical, that this fact is relevant to her fiction, and that "The Lost Father" mirrors the estranged relationship Mona Simpson has had with Abdulfattah John Jandali, the Syrian-born father who abandoned her and her mother. The latter and Simpson's mother, Joanne Carole Schieble, were graduate students when she became pregnant with their first child. Schieble's father threatened to disown her if she married a Syrian so she gave her son up for adoption. Her father died shortly thereafter, and the couple were finally able to marry. The son they gave up for adoption was Steve Jobs, the legendary founder of Apple. Mona Simpson and Steve Jobs, who are biological siblings, eventually found out about each other, and became close as adults, close enough for her to write "A Regular Guy" (1996), which is closely (according to some commentators) or loosely (according to others) based on the Steve Jobs she came to know very well. Prodigious talent was obviously in the siblings' genes. What is even more startling is how different their talents were, as if determined by yet another genetic factor: Gender. One was scientific/technological/masculine, the other, the exact opposite, artistic/literary/feminine. It is precisely this "wired" pre-determinism that a self-created writer like Simpson instinctively rejects even though genetics is an undeniable part of the truth about our lives. An absolute "must-have" title for Mona Simpson collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in red fountain pen on the half-title page by Mona Simpson. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. Simpson's signature on this copy is one of the most beautiful we have ever seen: Clean, flowing, and elegant. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (British) 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. One of the finest American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER MONA SIMPSON TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0571161499.