A medical mystery/fantasy/love story that delves into the nature of consciousness while raising the ethical and existential issues facing scientists today
A contemporary Frankenstein that defies expectations, this is a thrilling novel about a journalist, Cédric Allyn-Weberson, who suffers a horrific accident, paralyzing him from the neck down. An ideal candidate for a body transplant, Cédric survives the surgery but has both physical and existential trouble with his recovery and adaptation: encountering his lover with a new body, discovering the life history of his donor, and attempting to understand the mind-body relationship as he lives it.
Haddad explores the confusion and insignificance of a single consciousness before experience and identity: What is a head without a body? What or who is a lover with another’s body? The gruesome transplant (detailed in a manner that highlights the author’s diligent research and comprehension) parallels other ways humanity mutates nature globally. The novel is a provocative and timely allegory—a work of dystopian fantasy.
About the Author
Hubert Haddad is a French author born in Tunisia—a novelist, an art historian, a playwright, and an essayist. Alyson Waters is an award-winning translator, the managing editor of Yale French Studies, and a senior lecturer in the department of French at Yale University.
Praise For…
“[Desirable Body] updates Mary Shelley’s monster with today’s biotechnological wonders. . . . Real and disturbing questions emerge about how scientific advances exacerbate our yearning for immortality.”—New Yorker
“Desirable Body is about more than one decapitated man’s unusual plight; it’s about how surprisingly little our choices have to do with our feelings and passions. A farce, then, and a sharp one: it’s funny to contemplate, but if you fell into its toils for a second, you’d die screaming in horror.”—Simon Ings, The Guardian
“[A] sharp and provocative novel. . . . Haddad’s fabulously imagined, deeply intelligent, and vividly realized modern parable—complete with moments of true horror—sizzles as it grapples with the question of what makes a self, and if it’s ever possible to separate soul from flesh.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Selected by Newsweek as one of the “Best Books of 2018”
“Mesmerizing”—Daniel Bokemper, World Literature Today
