This is an auction for THE VINTNER'S LUCK by Elizabeth Knox.

This is a *** SIGNED *** copy of the book from a numbered limited edition of 1000 copies. (This is #405.)

"This is a story of the love between a man and an angel. In Burgundy one midsummer night in 1808, Sobran Jodeau, then 18, climbs to the ridge of his father's lands with freshly bottled wines to lament his love troubles. Stumbling drunkenly, he is caught by the angel Xas, who smells of snow and describes himself 'of the lowest of the nine orders. Unmentioned in Scripture and Apocrypha'. They share the bottles, and Xas promises that this night next year he will toast Sobran's marriage, leading Sobran to believe Xas is his protector and guide. Sobran marries the woman whose family strain of insanity his father fears, marches with the Grand Army to Moscow, inherits his father's vineyards and begins to prosper under his angelic 'luck'. However, Xas proves far different from a guardian angel, and as years pass their attachment shifts, severs then mends, as Xas's complicated relationship with God and Lucifer gradually unfolds. Each year's meeting constitutes one chapter, titled with the name of a wine, from 1808, Vin Bourro (new wine), to 1863, Vinifie (to turn into wine). Most intriguing are the glimpses we get of Hell, which Xas reveals is entered through a salt dome in Turkey, and Heaven, accessible through the lake of an Antarctic volcano. In Hell there is one copy of everything ever written, but in Heaven angels are the only copies God tolerates. And Heaven, we learn in a clever epilogue, looks like the Titanic."

• Publishers Weekly (US)

More very favourable reviews on Amazon.com.

Victoria University of Wellington hardback 2008.

239 pages.

New condition.

The cost of shipping is $3.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.