The UK cover for The Pale King is designed by Jon Gray. Check it out (and the press release) below:

 

 

Hamish Hamilton are excited to reveal their cover for David Foster Wallace's hugely anticipated final work, the novel The Pale King, to be published on Friday 15th April, 2011. Designed by Jon Gray, the cover references both the main setting of the novel, in a US tax office, and the circumstances of its discovery – heavily annotated manuscript pages with detailed notes on the assembly of the novel – put together by Wallace’s long-time US editor Michael Pietsch, in accordance with his final instructions.

David Foster Wallace's last and most ambitious undertaking, The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of the author's death, but it is a deeply intriguing and rewarding novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook.

Set at an IRS tax-return-processing centre in Illinois in the mid-1980s, The Pale King is the story of a crew of entry-level processors and their attempts to do their job in the face of soul-crushing tedium.

Michael Pietsch, David Foster Wallace’s long-time US publisher, and the editor of The Pale King, says, ‘Wallace takes agonizing daily events like standing in lines, traffic jams, and horrific bus rides — things we all hate — and turns them into moments of laughter and understanding. Although David did not finish the novel, it is a surprisingly whole and satisfying reading experience that showcases his extraordinary imaginative talents and his mixing of comedy and deep sadness in scenes from daily life.’


Simon Prosser, publisher of Hamish Hamilton UK, says ‘David Foster Wallace was perhaps the most influential American novelist of the last quarter century.  I love his writing and I’m incredibly proud that we will be publishing this book for a UK audience.’

 

[cheers, Joe]