BIENEK, Horst. The Cell.

(Santa Barbara, CA): Unicorn Press, 1972. First US edition. Hardcover. 23.5cm by 16cm. 93 pages. Translated from the German by Ursula Mahlendorf, with an introduction by Daniel Berrigan, S.J. Published in English following the novel’s German debut, The Cell is an experimental, tightly focused narrative centering on a lone prisoner’s experience of confinement and psychological endurance. The story — drawn from Bienek’s own experience as a political prisoner in a Soviet labor camp — unfolds as a stark, introspective monologue of life within the limitations of a cell, exploring memory, isolation, and the fragile mechanics of the self under duress. A very good copy in dust jacket. Jacket is worn and torn along top edge.