2 Michael Ondaatje first editions are documented on this shelf, from In the Skin of a Lion (1987) to The English Patient (1992). Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Michael Ondaatje title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Michael Ondaatje copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

In the Skin of a Lion — 1987 · McClelland & StewartFirst Canadian edition, McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, 1987 (ISBN 0-7710-6887-5), with the copyright page showing the first printing and no later-printing line. Bound in black paper-covered boards with the title stamped in silver on the spine; 244 pages. First-state dust jacket is unclipped with the price present on the front flap. True first is the Canadian M&S 1987 edition, preceding the US Knopf (1987, the first American edition) and the UK editions. This is the novel that introduces characters later carried into The English Patient. No significant book-club edition; watch national precedence, since the Knopf US printing is a later first-thus rather than the true first.
The English Patient — 1992 · McClelland & StewartCanadian McClelland & Stewart first printing, 1992, in green boards, 307 pages (ISBN 0771068867 / 9780771068867). Copyright page indicates the first printing with no later-printing notice. First-state dust jacket is unclipped with the printed price on the front flap. True first is the Canadian McClelland & Stewart edition; Ondaatje is Canadian and M&S preceded the UK Bloomsbury and US Knopf editions, both also 1992. Co-winner of the 1992 Booker Prize and the first novel by a Canadian to win it. The Knopf and Bloomsbury printings are separate firsts-thus, not the true first. No book-club edition of consequence; the distinction collectors watch is national precedence, so a Knopf or Bloomsbury copy is not the true first. Movie-tie-in paperbacks (1996) have no collecting significance.

More Literary Fiction (UK & World) shelves: Milan Kundera, Muriel Spark, Nadine Gordimer, Naguib Mahfouz, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Olga Tokarczuk.

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