A Book by its Cover

by KevinfromCanada

U.K. hardcover

U.S. cover

Canadian hardcover

Can. paperback

Here are four different versions of covers for the same book. I would say that Anne Michaels has confused her cover designers as much as she has confused this reader. Review of the book is here — you can figure out which cover suits you best.

This entry was posted on October 13, 2009 at 9:24 pm and is filed under 2009 Giller Prize, Michaels, Anne. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “A Book by its Cover”

Rick P Says:
October 14, 2009 at 1:10 am | Reply
Well at least it’s only the covers that changed.

Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes somehow changed covers and titles in the U.S. and is titles Someone Knows My Name.

I guess marketers have a lot to worry about.

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KevinfromCanada Says:
October 14, 2009 at 1:33 am | Reply
I am guessing that Hill’s original title carried a little too much history for his American publishers. Too bad.

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John Self Says:
October 18, 2009 at 3:22 pm | Reply
I don’t know that all this is terribly significant – different publishers, countries and book designers routinely come up with wildly varying cover designs for books. At least all of Michaels’ designs have a look that says, “This is a mimsy overwritten piece of poetry-as-prose; please avoid me.” Which is helpful to the busy browser.

Anyway, to add to the fun, here is the UK paperback.

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KevinfromCanada Says:
October 18, 2009 at 3:38 pm | Reply
Thanks for the addition to the gallery, John. And for the useful explanation of the unifying theme, which definitely is helpful. You are quite right that it doesn’t have much signifigance atlhough, having read the book (as opposed to considering buying it), I do find it interesting to ponder why an artist, designer and publisher chose the image they did.

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