Paul Bowles. 
 
Black Sparrow Press: 1979. First edition. Hardcover in an acetate jacket. Cloth backed spine with a paste-down spine label. Octavo. Slight sunning along the top of the boards, a couple of spots of foxing on the edges of the text block, and a little shelf wear along the bottoms of the boards. 417 pages. Near fine. 
 
In Bowles' fictions, with their unblinking eye on encounters of Americans with alien civilizations and landscapes, equal parts strangeness and terror remain, unabated, lying in wait for his 21st century fan. Includes an introduction by Gore Vidal and as ephemera a carefully written list of his other short story collections. 
 
"Our civilization is doomed to a short life: its component parts are too heterogeneous. I personally am content to see everything in the process of decay."