The Skin Is the Elastic Covering That Encases the Entire Body
Martin Aiken
(Translator)
Description
"A feverish combination of stream of conscious, autobiography, collage, and narrative, Skin marks the arrival of a truly original literary voice. Reminiscent of Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts, it is as omnivorous as the bodies within it, as unrestrained as the appetites, terrors, and trysts that celebrated author Bjørn Rasmussen evokes in poetic detail. Deeply emotional, erotic, elegiac, and pansexual, it caresses the wounds we visit upon our body and soul in an attempt to serve the urges of our largest organ--the skin that covers and defines us."--Entropy, Best Fiction of 2019
What if your first true love broke all known taboos? What if your very first romance drowned you in a whirlpool of transgression? A coming-of-age novel that is minutely in tune with the perversions of its narrator's body, The Skin Is the Elastic Covering that Encases the Entire Body defines category. The desperate account of a teenage boy in love with a much older riding instructor, it follows the unforgettable Bjorn as he pushes his flesh to its very limits, annihilating boundaries of gender and sexuality in a search for impossible gratification.A feverish combination of stream of conscious, autobiography, collage, and narrative, Skin marks the arrival of a truly original literary voice. It is as omnivorous as the bodies within it, as unrestrained as the appetites, terrors, and trystings that celebrated author Bjorn Rasumssen evokes in poetic detail. Deeply emotional, erotic, elegiac, and pansexual, it caresses the wounds we visit upon our flesh and soul in an attempt to serve the urges of the body's largest organ--the skin that covers and defines us.
Product Details
| Publisher | Two Lines Press |
| Publish Date | June 11, 2019 |
| Pages | 120 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781931883856 |
| Dimensions | 7.0 X 4.4 X 0.4 inches | 0.3 pounds |
About the Author
Martin Aitken is a widely published translator of Danish literature. He received the American-Scandinavian Foundation's Nadia Christensen Translation Prize in 2012. He has translated numerous books, including Dorthe Nors' Karate Chop, and he co-translated volume 6 of Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle with Don Bartlett.
Reviews
"A feverish combination of stream of conscious, autobiography, collage, and narrative, Skin marks the arrival of a truly original literary voice. Reminiscent of Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts, it is as omnivorous as the bodies within it, as unrestrained as the appetites, terrors, and trysts that celebrated author Bjørn Rasmussen evokes in poetic detail. Deeply emotional, erotic, elegiac, and pansexual, it caresses the wounds we visit upon our body and soul in an attempt to serve the urges of our largest organ--the skin that covers and defines us." --Entropy, Best Fiction of 2019
"A private and gem-like book . . . I was pulled by equal parts curiosity, repulsion, and empathy. Rasmussen has managed to stretch the soul in the way a butcher might stretch flesh, asking us to consider the roots of our desires and the depths of our longings." ―Full Stop
"Darkly beautiful and fearless." ―Book Riot
"Rasmussen's little obliteration wastes no time in expounding on the pungent pleasures of an illicit tryst . . . fear, arousal, and desperation are a potent mix." --Three Percent
"Bjørn Rasmussen writes with body and soul in a way you have never experienced before. The Skin Is the Elastic Covering that Encases the Entire Body is the most powerful, heart wrenching, and disturbing, book published in Denmark in recent years." --Naja Marie Aidt, author of Baboon and When Death Takes Something From You, Give it Back: Carl's Book
"The skin is in the center of this baroque-yet-utterly-visceral lyrical picaresque. The skin touches and is touched, but it is also a "stage" (as our narrator tells us) where performances take place, and it is constantly permeated--through sex, artifice, the senses. The beauty of the world--which includes silk robes, bodily functions, horse stench, and pretty much anything he sees, touches, or smells--overwhelms the narrator. Similarly Rasmussen's prose--written in the abject-sublime spirit of Jean Genet's Our Lady of Flowers--overwhelms with its gorgeous sensory overload. This is my favorite novel I've read in a long time." --Johannes Goransson, author of The Sugar Book, editor of Action Books
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