Skin is David Harsent's visionary new collection, consisting of ten dramatic sequences of poems, which, like a planetary system, operate on one another in a dynamic assemblage of propulsion and pull.
The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories contained four of these perfectly formed stories, and this companion volume contains a further six, published here together for the first time. As the six murderous tales unfold, the dark motive of revenge is revealed at the heart of each.
Here are luminous sketches of characters she has met, of transgressive and often tragic women - prostitutes and mothers, spinsters and celebrities, famous writers and the homeless - that illuminate the era's racism, sexism, and poverty. Above all, here is prose blurring into poetry, language to lose - and perhaps to find - yourself in.