Oak Tree Fine Press

First Chapter Series ® Volume V

Barry Unsworth

Sacred Hunger

Barry Unsworth at the launch of Vol V of the First Chapter
Series®

"Let the most oppressed people under heaven once change their thinking and they are free"

Produced in the Bicentennial Year of the Abolition of the British Slave Trade, the fifth volume of the First Chapter Series (Booker Prize) is a riveting narrative based on an 18th Century slave ship. Echoing modern concerns, it depicts a society driven by greed -- the "sacred hunger'' of the title - and the desire to maximize profit regardless of the human cost.

The stirring opening chapters of the novel are included in this beautiful handbound volume, together with a new foreword by the writer. Stark woodcut illustrations, specially commissioned from award-winning artist Ezequiel Mabote, complement the text, making this signed limited edition volume a welcome addition to your collection.

"Wonderful and heartbreaking. a book of grace and meditative elegance, and of great moral seriousness." New York Times Book Review

"" His descriptions of the multifarious states of ocean and sky are worthy of the master. Unsworth shifts with ease from the abstract to the concrete, from the cosmic to the comic. His tenth novel is his best." The Times Literary Supplement

About the artist

Ezequiel Mabote draws inspiration for his striking pieces from the everyday life and folklore of Mozambique. Trained at the John Muafangejo Centre in Namibia, he makes careful use of texture and colour to create bold visuals, which have been exhibited in the USA and Africa.

Click each image to view

The First Chapter Series

The First Chapter Series® of Booker Prize-winning novels is available to buy as a deluxe set limited to 150 copies. The set comprises individually numbered copies of all ten volumes, signed by the author to the title page and hand bound in cloth. Each volume includes signed artwork* enclosed with the book in a matching hand made slip case and cassette. View set

*Please note the following exceptions: artwork for Volume V must be purchased separately; artwork for Volume VIII is unsigned.

Set of ten books: ₤1500

Single deluxe volume

This volume of the First Chapter Series contains the individually numbered book signed by the author and hand bound in cloth. This is in a matching hand made slip case.

Price: ₤100

Artwork

30 sets of two woodcut prints inspired by the book, by award-winning Ezequiel Mabote, signed by the author and the artist. Each print is titled in beautiful calligraphy with a quotation from the novel:
"Let the most oppressed people under heaven once change their thinking and they are free"
"Something in us dies so the rest can live on, but it must not be the heart"

Price: ₤150

Links

Ezequiel Mabote at the African Art Centre

www.ezequielmabote.com