Signs of Life - Hardcover

Harrison, M. John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312156561 ISBN 13: 9780312156565

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1997

Synopsis

A telling dissection of a relationship, a clear-headed look at what it was to live and love in 80s Britain. An at once surreal and forensically real novel from a critically lauded author who has influenced an entire generation of genre authors

"Harrison is a writer who transgresses conventional genre boundaries. Signs of Life is about Mick "China" Rose, an unassuming man who runs a shady and lucrative medical-transport-cum-waste-disposal business. Along with his partner, Choe, and his lover, Isobel, China drives souped-up vehicles at ferocious speeds through a dreamlike world where dystopian fantasies of biomedical wrongdoings blend with the subtly shifted reality of Harrison's Britain. Choe is a self-destructive child-man who thrashes from an unattainable idyllic past to an unstructured future full of gangsters and rancid waste dumps. Isobel values beauty and longs for physical transformation. As their destinies unfold, the story is not quite horrific, but it's superbly written and chilling, the kind of novel that will haunt you for days." Kirkus

About this title

Review:

‘Imagine Reservoir Dogs scripted by Alan Bennett and you will have some idea of the flavour... superbly realized.’
The Times

‘Remarkable... Signs of Life is a glorious hybrid, mixing elements of science fiction and literary art into a striking fable that reads like little else currently on bookshop shelves. His dystopian view of a Britain running riot with unregulated biotechnology is truly frightening.’
Sunday Times

‘Brilliantly sustained. If you’ve never discovered M. John Harrison, now’s your chance. Far too long the most underrated writer of his generation, he’s one of the best we’ve got.’
Time Out

‘Like all good literature, Harrison’s stories are worth reading again and again; the more you read, the more you understand.’
Iain Banks

Book Description:

A literary novel of the highest order, a vivid, unblinking look at life and love in the 80s from a hugely influential and talented author

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0312156561
• ISBN 13: 9780312156565
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 255