The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood is a 513-page hardcover published by Nan A. Talese, Doubleday, September 2000, stated first edition in The United States of America.  The dust jacket has a 3/4" closed tear to the top of the spine.  Inside, the spine is lightly bumped.  Otherwise, the book is pristine, with clean unmarked pages and tight and square binding. 

Book Summary

The novel opens with these simple, resonant words:  "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge."  They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental.  But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel.  Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms.  When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.  Told in a style that magnificently captures the colloquialisms of the 1930s and 1940s, The Blind Assassin is a richly layered and uniquely rewarding experience.