Synopses & Reviews
One night, after a row with his lover, Neil follows a stranger onto a canal towpath. The stranger turns on him and attacks. He viciously carves up Neil’s face, leaving him mutilated -beyond recognition. Neil’s recovery, through surgical reconstruction and sexual alienation, forces him to question every value he’s ever had, and his attempt to track down his mysterious attacker is a search for his own hidden, destructive self. The Blue Mask is a hardcore emotional trip that explores the trauma of change and the nature of violence and love.
Brought up in Birmingham, England, Joel Lane is a graduate of Cambridge University. He won an Eric Gregory Award for Poetry in 1993. His first novel, From Blue to Black, was published to critical acclaim in 2001.
Review
'The Blue Mask takes an intensely personal slant on the big themes of love, identity and retribution, and turns them into something that is both moving and original... the controlled prose honours the complexities of Neils struggle to differentiate between what he is and what has been done to him
New Statesman
Synopsis
Neil's face is badly scarred after an attack. Plastic surgery changes the perceptions others have of him.
About the Author
Born in Exeter in 1963, Joel Lane is a graduate of Cambridge University. He won the Eric Gregory Award for Poetry in 1993, and a collection of his short stories, The Earth Wire, was published in 1994.