Friday, March 28, 2008

His Illegal Self -- US and UK editions

On top, the US edition. The UK edition is below.

Interesting what cropping and type can do: glancing at these very quickly (and conveniently ignoring the title), the US edition clearly registers as fiction to me, while the UK version could very well be a non-fiction book about raising earnest kids.

(A reader says: The chronology of these covers is that Barbara deWilde took the existing UK cover and reworked it for Knopf. Thanks for the info.)



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10 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:53 PM

    What? A US cover that's *better* than the UK cover? ZOMG!

    Let me bask in the glory of this moment for just a minute. Ahh...

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  2. Annastacia8:22 PM

    A very good point. Such a subtle difference, but a very poignant one.

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  3. Anonymous11:27 PM

    Love the US cover. The UK version reminds me of the cover of A.M. Homes' book The Mistress's Daughter--the full-on face shot and the blue eyes.

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  4. Anonymous7:38 AM

    It's bizarre how similar the covers are and yet the UK one just looks so dull. A shame, because I went to a talk/reading by Carey t'other week and he's such an amazingly fun and interesting guy and the book sounds like a great read. I'd love it, Mr BDR, if you did a comparison of the UK/US latest Julian Barnes. The UK version is really typical and dull (compared with Arthur & George) but the US cover, with its Death tarot card, is pretty cool. Thanks!

    MrSneeze

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  5. Anonymous8:17 AM

    The chronology of these covers is that Barbara deWilde took the existing UK cover and reworked it for Knopf.

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  6. Joseph11:20 AM

    Thanks, anon!

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  7. Anonymous7:33 PM

    Call me boring, but I like the UK cover - are the boy's eyes different colors?

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  8. Anonymous6:14 AM

    The mention of the Booker Prize might also help categorizing the book as fiction ;)

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  9. Peter Cooper11:06 AM

    I'm surprised at the comments here :) I'm British, but I find US covers to be generally significantly better than their UK counterparts (Penguin excepted ;-)). I'm not sure why the US gets the more powerful covers, but there you go.

    (That said, I much prefer browsing in US book stores than their UK equivalents too, so perhaps this all says more about my Americentrism than anything else!)

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  10. roguescholar3:38 PM

    Not sure why, but I HATE when the author's name is larger than the title...more so than the phrase "a novel"

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