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, Nell Bartlett's long-awaited third novel is his fiercest piece of writing yet: cruel, erotic, and tender.
Skin Lane: Shortlisted for the Costa Book Award 2008
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