In the Skin of a Lion
By Michael Ondaatje
 
First edition, first impression: Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987. Signed and inscribed by the author to the title page in the year of publication.
 
Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in silver. With the original pictorial dust jacket designed by Gordon Robertson, priced $22.50 to the upper corner of the front flap.
 
A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the boards clean and sharp, and the contents fresh; previous owner’s name and date neatly to the front free endpaper, the text block otherwise unmarked.
 
The dust jacket fine, bright and crisp, with no fading or notable wear, presenting particularly well.
 
Ondaatje’s breakthrough novel, a richly textured reimagining of early twentieth-century Toronto, centring on immigrant labourers and the hidden histories behind the city’s great building projects. It forms a thematic precursor to The English Patient (1992), with several characters and narrative strands continuing between the two works; signed copies of the true Canadian first edition, particularly inscribed in the year of publication, are uncommon.