The Coup.

First Edition of John Updike's The Coup; Signed by Him

The Coup.

UPDIKE, John.

Item Number: 86576

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.

First edition of “one of Updike’s boldest and most imaginative performances” (Newsweek). Octavo, original cloth. Signed by John Updike on the title page. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a touch of wear. Jacket design by S. Neil Fujita.

The Coup describes violent events in the imaginary African nation of Kush, a large, landlocked, drought-ridden, sub-Saharan country led by Colonel Hakim Félix Ellelloû. (“A leader,” writes Colonel Ellelloû, “is one who, out of madness or goodness, takes upon himself the woe of a people. There are few men so foolish.”) Colonel Ellelloû has four wives, a silver Mercedes, and a fanatic aversion—cultural, ideological, and personal—to the United States. But the U.S. keeps creeping into Kush, and the repercussions of this incursion constitute the events of the novel. Colonel Ellelloû tells his own story—always elegantly, and often in the third person—from an undisclosed location in the South of France.

We're sorry, this item has sold.

Ask a Question SHIPPING & GUARANTEE