The Elephant Vanishes.

MURAKAMI, Haruki.

$1,250.00

Item Number: 125756

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.

First edition of this classic collection of stories, one of which was the basis for the 2018 acclaimed film Burning. Octavo, original boards. Boldly signed and stamped by Haruki Murakami on the title page. Additionally signed three times by jacket designer Chip Kidd, once on the front panel, below Murakami’s signature and on the jacket rear panel. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Chip Kidd. Translated from the Japanese by Alfred Birnbaum and Jay Rubin.

In these stories, a man sees his favorite elephant vanish into thin air; a newlywed couple suffers attacks of hunger that drive them to hold up a McDonald’s in the middle of the night; and a young woman discovers that she has become irresistible to a little green monster who burrows up through her backyard. By turns haunting and hilarious, in The Elephant Vanishes Murakami crosses the border between separate realities—and comes back bearing remarkable treasures. “These stories show us Japan as it’s experienced from the inside. . . . [They] take place in parallel worlds not so much remote from ordinary life as hidden within its surfaces. . . . Even in the slipperiest of Mr. Murakami’s stories, pinpoints of detail flash out . . . warm with life, hopelessly–and wonderfully–unstable" (The New York Times Book Review).