The Commissar

368pp. First English language hard cover edition. In black cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering on spine. (Boards a little bruised at spine ends). Internally neat, clean and tight, a hint of toning. In its original, near fine, dust jacket. The dust jacket is now protected in an archival-quality mylar wrapper, fitted without the use of tape or adhesives. Sven Hassel was the pen name of the Danish author Borge Willy Redsted Pederson. Pederson was a war veteran and claimed to have spent the last years of the second world war in various prisoner of war camps but in reality had been arrested in Denmark and imprisoned for various crimes. His works, written in the first person, often feature himself as a key character and reveal a brutal view of war. His books are not deemed suitable for the public libraries in his home country but proved popular elsewhere, especially in the UK and USA.