Paperback, 2002. Bought new, still in great condition. Three pages had dog-ears and I had to erase pencil marks on a few others. Very minor cosmetic wear to the cover (see pics). So I would say this copy was gently loved but is still in fine shape: the spine has no cracks, no pages are torn or missing. This is a fascinating book that I've read more than once over the years. Atwood shares her wisdom and experience while weaving in anecdotes from her childhood with examples from Dante to Shakespeare to the King James Bible, from George Orwell to Elvis to The Wizard of Oz. Again and again her sly wit pops up and charms your socks off. Atwood is a winner of the Booker Prize and you may know her as the author of The Handmaid's Tale. "One of the most intelligent writers working in English addresses the riddle of her art: why people pursue writing, how they view their calling, and what bargains they make with their audiences, both real and imagined. Atwood brings a candid appraisal of her own experience as well as a breadth of reading. Negotiating with the Dead is an invaluable insider’s view of the writer’s universe." For me, something wonky is happening with the close-up photo of the back cover--if you see that too it's just an artifact of software or a browser-rendering problem, there's no weird cross-hatching on the actual book itself (see the last pic of the full back cover, for comparison).