Desirable Body (The Margellos World Republic of Letters) - Softcover

"[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 "This novel raises terribly timely ethical and existential questions in an atmosphere of ceaseless suspense."-Memoire des Arts on the French edition of Desirable Body "Hubert Haddad's limpid and realistic prose is captivating."-Terra Eco on the French edition of Desirable Body "In book after book, Hubert Haddad proves the seriousness and importance of his work."- Yves Viollier, La vie on the French edition of Desirable Body "Once again [Hubert Haddad] confirms the multifaceted dimension of his talent in this mesmerizing tale where the unimaginable is imagined and the inconceivable is conceived."-La croix on the French edition of Desirable Body "Desirable Body is as surprising as it is masterful."-La Montagne on the French edition of Desirable Body

A medical mystery/fantasy/love story that delves deeply into the nature of consciousness while raising many of the ethical and existential issues facing scientists today A contemporary Frankenstein that defies expectations, this is a thrilling novel, couched in luminous, captivating prose about a journalist, Cedric Allyn-Weberson, who suffers a horrific accident, paralyzing him from the neck down. An ideal candidate for a body transplant, Cedric 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 own diligent research and comprehension) parallels other ways humanity mutates nature globally; the novel is a provocative and timely allegory-a work of dystopian fantasy.