Kingdom Come

Large 8vo., black boards embossed with titles to spine; pale grey endpapers; together in the unclipped photographic dustwrapper (£17.99 to front flap); pp. [viii], 3-280, [ii]; a little pinching to spine tips; otherwise fine. 

First edition, this copy neatly signed by Ballard in blue pen to the title page. A series of loose newspaper clippings featuring reviews of the book are also loosely laid in. 

Ballard’s final novel, written just a few years before his death in 2009. The plot follows Richard Pearson, whose father is killed in a shooting at a shopping centre off the M25. When the main suspect is mysteriously released, Pearson takes it upon himself to discover the truth behind the pristine facades of the labyrinthine mall. 

“Ballard's central idea is that consumerism slides into fascism when politics simply gives the punters what they want”, one Guardian article claims, “The book is a vehicle for concepts, one-liners and poetic fragments: 'elective psychopathy' will replace war and sex; 'Violence is the true poetry of governments'; 'Think of the future as a cable TV programme going on for ever'”. 

A bright,clean copy.  

SKU: 1800154