Concrete Island 1st Edition

London: Jonathan Cape, (1974). Octavo, 13 x 20.5 cm, 176pp. 1st edition. Black paper over boards, spine stamped in gilt; blue topstain. Dust jacket has very light wear to the edges. Near fine/Near fine. DJM/djm

On a day in April, just after three o'clock in the afternoon, Robert Maitland's car crashes over the concrete parapet of a high-speed highway onto the island below, where he is injured and, finally, trapped. What begins as an almost ludicrous predicament soon turns into horror as Maitland--a wickedly modern Robinson Crusoe--realizes that, despite evidence of other inhabitants, this doomed terrain has become a mirror of his own mind. Seeking the dark outer rim of the everyday, Ballard weaves private catastrophe into an intensely specular allegory.