A strange, sleek little Kureishi novel about ageing, appetite, sex, vanity and masculinity.

An elderly playwright is offered the impossible, he has the chance to leave his failing body behind and inhabit a younger one. Suddenly he has a second life lived through the old habits of the first, with all the same hungers, humiliations, jealousies, and compromises following close behind.

Kureishi is very good on the body as both instrument and trap: youth as performance, sex as theatre, freedom as another kind of dependency. This sits somewhere between speculative fiction, moral fable, and late-life erotic comedy, with a pleasingly nasty philosophical edge. Good for readers interested in identity, embodiment, desire, male self-deception, body-swap fiction with literary teeth, or Kureishi’s broader work around intimacy, transgression and social performance.

Faber and Faber hardback, first published in 2002. Includes The Body and related stories/works including “Hullabaloo in the Tree,” “Face to Face with You,” “Goodbye, Mother,” “Remember This Moment, Remember Us,” and “Touched.” Good second-hand condition with light cover wear/handling and mild page toning.