Skin

Salacious, funny, and painfully emotive, ''Skin'' is a provocative and ruminative parable about our deep-rooted urge to ostracize the freakish and shun the disfigured among us. An unconventional love story, Bowman probes the surface to reveal deeper, more lingering impulses connected to desire, understanding, and love. It is only on very extraordinary occasions when beauty and the beast get together, but they do here. ''Skin'' is a cutting and startling debut novel. "One of those small glinting gems that make you wonder how it''s done...This book surges from the starting gate and flags somewhat in the final lap, but ''Skin''''s striking images and thematic vigour combine to make it an uncommon and refreshing literary debut." - The Globe & Mail Winner of the 1999 3-Day Novel-Writing Contest Winner: Inaugural ReLit Award, 2001