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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35721 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review

Isserley always drove straight past a hitch-hiker when she first saw him, to give herself time to size him up. She was looking for big muscles: a hunk on legs. Puny, scrawny specimens were no use to her.

So begins Michel Faber's first novel: a lone female scouts the Scottish Highlands in search of well-proportioned men and the reader is given to expect the unfolding of some latter-day psychosexual drama. But commonplace expectation is no guide for this strange and deeply unsettling book; small details at first, then more major clues, suggest that something deeply bizarre is afoot. What are the reason's for Isserley's extensive surgical scarring, her thick glasses (which are just glass), her excruciating backache? Who are the solitary few who work on the farm where her cottage is located? And why are they all nervous about the arrival of someone called Amlis Vess?

The ensuing narrative is one of such cumulative, compelling strangeness that it almost defies description--the one thing that can be said with certainty is that Under The Skin is unlike anything else you have ever read. The result is a narrative of enormous imaginative and emotional coherence from a writer whose control of his medium is nearly flawless and who applies the rules of psychological realism to a fictional world that is terrifying and unearthly to the point that the reader's identification with Isserley becomes one of absolute sympathy.

Michel Faber's debut deserves to inherit and expand upon the acclaim bestowed upon his short-story collection Some Rain Must Fall. Under the Skin is a reviewer's nightmare and a reader's dream: a book so distinctive, so elegantly written and so original that all one can say is simply to experience it. An extraordinary first book. -- Burhan Tufail

Synopsis
A brilliantly told and beautifully written that defies categorisation, Under the Skin introduces Isserley, a woman obsessed with picking up male hitchhikers - so long as they're well-muscled and alone. But why? As the novel unfolds and the reason is made explicit, the reader is drawn inexorably into a completely unexpected and increasingly terrifying world.

From the Publisher
Unlike anything you will ever have read
Michel Faber, born in Holland, raised in Australia and currently living in Scotland, is that rare thing - a novelist with an utterly original vision. As his publisher I can only say that the excitement building up behind this book is unlike anything I have witnessed. By the end of 1999 he will have co-publishers in at least eight countries and has already sold to four extremely prestigious houses outside of Britain.

I love this book with a passion. If you are a vodsel (you'll know what I'm talking about by the time you've read it, if you read it) then I defy you not to be deeply affected by this wise, humane, funny and serious novel.

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Customer Reviews

Sinister in a beautifully bleak landscape
Difficult to say too much about this book without giving anything away. It's better left for the reader to get into and see where their own thoughts lead them without preconceived ideas. It's hard to believe there's anyone who has never questioned man's domination over his fellow earth creatures or asked themselves 'What if we were in their place?' Isserley is an exquisite vehicle to bring this gripping tale to us. Her character is drawn hauntingly.

trapsing about the A9
I am currently reading this book and frankly I am at a loss to find anything of value in it other than a possible sly dig at Hitchhikers and the environs of scotland .The science fiction is lame and unconvincing . I hope it gets better.

cracking stuff
I've read a few of M Faber's books by now, and love his/her technical ability. This one has a horrid momentum as well as rock solid craft.