August In July

August in July (1986) by Carlo Gébler — Condition: Good (Crappy Old Books, Ex-Library Edition)

Before Carlo Gébler became the prolific novelist, memoirist, and chronicler of Irish lives that he is today, he gave us August in July (Hamish Hamilton, 1986, ISBN: 9780241117873), an early novel brimming with sharp observation, sly wit, and that curious ability to make the ordinary pulse with unease. It’s the kind of book where people meet, talk, and remember—and yet beneath the surface, the gears of time, memory, and identity are grinding away. Gébler has always been interested in how lives are shaped by circumstance, and here you can feel him working out those obsessions with a novelist’s restless precision.

Now, about this particular copy: it’s an ex-library survivor—rescued from the stacks, dressed in its trusty plastic protective jacket (the bookish equivalent of a raincoat), and now finding a second life at Crappy Old Books. Condition is rated Good, which in our idiosyncratic grading means: the cover is preserved under that slightly squeaky plastic shield; the spine has endured its share of borrowings but remains sturdy; the pages are intact, though they may carry the faint pencilled hieroglyphs of Dewey decimals or the ghost of a date-stamp or two. It’s not pristine, but it is experienced, and if you listen carefully you might still hear the faint shuffling of library shoes across linoleum.

There’s a charm to ex-library books: they’ve been read by many hands, survived fluorescent lighting, and witnessed countless whispers of “shhh.” This copy wears that history proudly. The protective cover has kept it safe; the novel inside remains just as intriguing as the day it left Hamish Hamilton’s press.

In short: August in July is early Gébler—sharp, stylish, and quietly resonant. This copy is Good, ex-library, and plastic-coated for durability, which makes it both rugged and reader-ready. Another happily seasoned find from Crappy Old Books, where even library discards get a second chance at circulation.

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