The Obscene Bird of Night Signed First Edition Reference

El obsceno pájaro de la noche (Seix Barral, 1970; English: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973, as The Obscene Bird of Night, translated by Hardie St. Martin and Leonard Mades) is Donoso’s hallucinatory masterwork — a narrative that dissolves the boundaries between an old woman’s mansion, a convent for deformed children, and the consciousness of Humberto Peñaloza, who may or may not be a deaf-mute servant. The novel took Donoso eight years to write and is one of the most formally radical novels in the Boom canon.

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed Spanish first (Seix Barral): $200–$500
• Signed English first (Knopf): $100–$250
• Unsigned English first: $20–$50

The Donoso trophy — a novel whose nightmarish power has grown in critical estimation since publication. Bolaño cited it as one of the greatest Latin American novels.