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Packer, Ann : Songs Without Words

Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, NY, 2007

ISBN 0375412816

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 322 pages. The author's second novel. One of the most important literary events of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. 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. "Autographed Copy" red sticker pasted in front. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Ann Packer's "Songs Without Words". A novel about transcendence. A richly nuanced meditation on the place of friendship in life. "Liz and Sarabeth's childhood friendship deepened following Sarabeth's mother's suicide when the girls were 16. Now the two women are in their 40's and living in the Bay Area. Responsible mother Liz has come to see eccentric, bohemian Sarabeth, with her tendency to enter into inappropriate relationships with men, as more like another child than as a sister or friend. Packer adroitly navigates Sarabeth's lonely longings and Liz's feelings of guilt and inadequacy" (Publishers Weekly). The first paragraph is magical, one of those moments in literature when a writer limns in a few, spare, and simple image-sentences the entire universe of her novel: "Each evening, the streetlights came on at dusk, and the view out the window changed, from barely glowing kitchens and TV rooms to the houses that contained them, and to the trees that sheltered the houses. It seemed to Sarabeth that for a little while there was a kind of balance out there, an equilibrium. But then, quickly, darkness came down from the sky, and soon the lit rooms returned to prominence, and finally everything else was black, and the world seemed limited to a few bright windows on a street in Palo Alto" (Ann Packer). "Songs Without Words" is Felix Mendelsohn's piano masterpiece, wordless music inspired by song and transcending it at the same time. An absolute "must-have" title for Ann Packer collectors. This Autographed Copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black pen on the title page by Ann Packer. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page, even though it comes from the publisher. This title is now collectible. As far as we know, this is the only such Advance Signed Copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Ann Packer did NOT sign most copies of the book. 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. Ann Packer's "The Dive From Clausen's Nest" is one of the most spectacular literary debuts of our time and won both the Kate Chopin and Great Lakes Book Awards. One of the finest American writers of our time. A fine copy. . ISBN 0375412816.

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