First Edition, First Printing. Just about fine in original brown boards and in like pictorial dust jacket (price-clipped). Signed by author Doris Lessing on half-title page. The 2007 Nobel Prize winner's best novel. According to BBC Radio 4, the Swedish Academy, which awards the prize, described Lessing as "that epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny." "Oh good, did they say that about me?' Lessing replied. "Oh goodness, well obviously they like me better now than they used to."