Under The Skin (Canons)

by Michel Faber

A brilliantly told and beautifully written novel 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 story unfolds and the reason is made explicit, the reader is drawn inexorably into a completely unexpected and increasingly terrifying world.

• ISBN10: 1841954802
• ISBN13: 9781841954806
• Publish Date: 3 May 2004 (first published 1 January 2000)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 18 May 2010
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Canongate Books
• Edition: Main
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[brokentune]

This is one book you want to read without knowing much about it.

However, that makes writing a review for this book a hell of a task because I can't tell you about the salient points of this book that are both scary and funny at the same time.

And there were so many aspects modern life that Faber picked up and turned on their head in this - his first - book.

So, the only thing I will say is that it follows the story of Isserly, who picks up hitchhikers in northern Scotland and that I would be wary of hitching a ride on the A9.

*edited 15.Feb.16 as original description slightly misleading!

[wyvernfriend]

This wasn't for me, for me the message (what if another race looked at us as cattle, and slaughtered us like that, fattening us up for a few months beforehand) was more important than the story and that turns me off in a book.

Isserley cruises the roads in Scotland picking up hitch-hikers to bring to the farm for processing. She muses about her fate and her place in this world, a world she's an outsider in.

Not my kind of book.