SACRED HUNGER - COLLECTION.

This is a first edition first print of SACRED HUNGER by Barry Unsworth, published by DOUBLEDAY in 1992. It shared the 1992 Booker prize with THE ENGLISH PATIENT by Michael Ondaatje. It is signed by Unsworth on the title page. I just received this yesterday and have read the first few chapters and it seems like it is going to be quite brilliant!

Here is a synopsis -

A blasphemous outcast, Matthew Paris boards the “Liverpool Merchant” as ship’s doctor as it embarks on a mercantile voyage in the slave trade. An illness breaks out among the slaves and crew between Guinea and the West Indies, and slaves are ordered to be tossed overboard in order to claim the insurance. Illness gives rise to mutiny, the captain is killed, and, with Paris as one of the leaders, the ship sails for Florida to establish an egalitarian, interracial society. Meanwhile, back in Liverpool, the loss of the ship has financially ruined its owner, Kemp, who hangs himself. Twelve years later, upon hearing rumours of a utopian community of blacks and whites in Florida, Kemp’s son sets out for revenge.