Skin Lane

Part fairy-tale, part compelling evocation of a now lost London, Neil Bartlett's long-awaited third novel is his fiercest piece of writing yet: cruel, erotic and tender.

At 47, Mr. F s working life on London s Skin Lane is one governed by calm, precision and routine. So when he starts to have frightening, recurring nightmares, he does his best to ignore them. The images that appear in his dream are disturbing Mr. F can't for the life of him think where they have come from. After all, he's a perfectly ordinary middle-aged man. As London s crooked backstreets begin to swelter in the long, hot summer of 1967, Mr. F s nightmare becomes an obsession. A chance encounter adds a face to the body that nightly haunts him, and the torments of his sweat-drenched nights lead him and the reader deeper into a terrifying labyrinth of rage, desire and shame.

Part fairy-tale, part compelling evocation of a now-lost London, Neil Bartlett's long-awaited third novel is his fiercest piece of writing yet: cruel, erotic, and tender."