The Mystic Masseur

London: Andre Deutsch, 1957. 1st edition. Hardcover. pp. 215. Small 8vo. There is a slight bump to the bottom of the front board. The boards are a bit bowed due, it appears, to the replacement of the original plain endpapers with newer endpapers. The bottom edge of the spine is very slightly creased. Spine a bit dry, causing the text block to crack slightly at several places near the center of the book. Nothing is loose. The original dust jacket is present, and has not been price-clipped. It appears that the front flap of the jacket had adhered to the front endpaper and, in separating the two, there was some small loss of paper on the inside of the flap (not really visible from the outside - or printed - side). Our conservator has nicely reinforced this abrasion but the wrinkle is still present. There is some light wear to the folds of the jacket and a trace of wear to the top edge. There is also a bit of very light soiling. Overall, the book is in good+, to very good, condition, and the jacket is in about the same state. Vidiadhar Surajorasad Naipul (born 1932) is a Trinidadian novelist who has won the Booker Prize (1971) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (2001). He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1990. This is his first book and concerns a frustrated writer of Indian descent who rises from an impoverished background to become a successful politician due, in large part, to his somewhat dubious skill as a 'mystic' masseur who can heal the sick.