I want to recommend this book to the readers of the Horror/Scary newsletter. It is the one book I have read so far this year in the horror genre that I will remember for a long time.

The story takes place on an isolated island in the Antarctic, right after World War One. A young man, looking to distance himself from his problems, signs on to be the weather observer for the island for one year.

When he is dropped off on the island, he finds himself alone with a crazed lighthouse keeper and monsters who come in the night from the depths of the ocean.

The story is fast paced, beautifully worded (considering it is a translation from the Catalan) first novel from an anthropologist, who explores the boundries between man and beast.

Lovers of horror and off beat books. If you are a Poe or Lovecraft fan, you will like this one. It is a slim book, good for reading at night.

The plot is different, the setting is great, and the descriptions are hair- raising.

The thought of bestiality made me squirm. I think the author meant it that way.

Make my husband read the book so we could talk about it. Which we did!

Albert Sanchez Pinol was born in Barcelona and is an anthropologist. Cold Skin is his first novel. Translated into fifteen languages, it won the Ojo Critico Narrativa prize on its original publication in Catalan in 2003.

I haven't read a unique horror story in eons. FINALLY, something different, something to make me think, and actually a book that made me squirm!

This book is NOT for people who would be upset by violence, bestiality, and horror. Not for the squeamish.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Cold Skin : A Novel   from Amazon.Com!

Created May 07, 2006 at 9:08am • Submit your own review...