Skin
Skin was published by Orion and is a controversial
examination of the beauty industry and one woman’s quest
to deal with both her own fading beauty and her obsessive and
destructive love.
It was the subject of much radio and television debate, a Guardian cover story and a feature in Vogue.
Synopsis
In an effort to regain her lost youth, a woman subjects herself to a series of surgical interventions, progressing ever further back as each operation suggests another. At each stage in the regression, the story takes us back in time, until we see in her youth - beautiful, yet tragic.
Reviews for Skin:
“A mesmeric and extraordinary novel”
Observer
“Briscoe’s prose is masterfully fluent…some of the most erotic writing ever”
Observer
“Joanna Briscoe’s second novel confirms her reputation as a formidably talented writer. Her prose is polished, sophisticated and seductive”
Independent on Sunday
“stunningly persuasive, powered by Briscoe's coolly beautiful prose”
Independent
“A triumph of ventriloquism.....Every little detail stings true.... Her passionate refusal to be nice only adds to her achievement”
Maureen Freely, Literary Review
“Joanna Briscoe has a well-deserved reputation as a fine writer”
Times
“Literate and powerful”
Options (Book of the Month)
“Essential reading”
Kate Figes, Elle
“Stunning new novel”
Marie Claire
“Briscoe is refining erotic writing into something quite unusual and transfixing.... Joanna Briscoe has superbly enhanced her portrait of Adèle with carefully crafted suspense....... Skin is an accomplished and very striking second novel”
Independent on Sunday
“skilful eroticism. I must admit to envy - both of Briscoe for her writing and of Adèle herself.... accomplished, intelligent novel....Skin has some beautiful passages...I suspect that Skin will be remembered most for its powerful evocation of panic and loneliness.”
Elisa Segrave, Independent
“A startling and provocative novel..... intense use of language to create a hypnotic mood. She mixes deeply sensual writing with stark truths”
Mail on Sunday
“While the sensuousness of the descriptions owes much to Symbolist poetry and European writing, there is also a morality, a fable within the story”
Fiona Pitt-Kethley, Telegraph
“toe-curling precision that throws the more lyrical passages... into sharp relief.... Briscoe's prose is powerful, her imagery exact”
Time Out
“The book is a powerful and disconcerting read... The novel is compulsive reading”
Angela Lambert, Daily Mail
“strange and unusual.... powerfully written”
Publishing News
“A terrific evocation of tangible and intangible pain, with some truly erotic moments. One to recommend”
The Bookseller
“stunningly precise descriptions of plastic surgery”
Vogue
“written in heady, hothouse prose..... shocking, compelling”
Big Issue
“A torrid tale of sexual obsession and plastic surgery”
Mail on Sunday
“Brilliant.... Briscoe's writing shimmers with eroticism, and her portrait of Adèle and the claustrophobic world she has created around her is both unsettling and mesmeric”
Midweek
“An extraordinary and startling novel”
Plymouth Sunday Independent
“Ambitious and intriguing”
Times Literary Supplement
“A grippingly distressing horror story”
Ms London
“Clarity and precision.... febrile intensity”
Punch
“Finely written new novel"”
Gay Times
“A powerful novel... chilling but riveting”
WeightWatchers Magazine
“Skin is a fascinating, highly erotic, sometimes disturbing book”
Plymouth Evening Herald
