KAVAN, Anna. Who Are You? [Lowestoft]: Scorpion Press. [1963].
8vo. Publisher's cloth, spine lettered in gilt, original illustrated dust-wrappers (retaining price) designed by Laurence Edwards; pp. 117; wrappers with light marginal wear, short tear at upper edge of front hinge, light spotting to and offsetting from endpapers, large spotting to edges; a very good copy.
First edition, very rare.
This novel follows the protagonist through her adolescence and eventual marriage to the brutish ‘Mr. Doghead’. In the oppressive heat of the Burmese jungle, their relationship grows increasingly strained. The story is haunted by the refrain of the brain-fever birds: ‘Who Are You?’; a question the characters must contend with as they ‘live through the same situations twice over’.
Anna Kavan may have gathered inspiration for this novel from her own time spent in colonial Burma with her first husband, Donald Ferguson.
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