Skin Is the Elastic Covering that Encases the Entire Body

Pocked with unnerving tableaux, distinctly sensory depictions, and a heady admixture of shame-fueled desire, Bjørn Rasmussen's The Skin Is the Elastic Covering That Encases the Entire Body is no less than an innocence-obliterating maelstrom of illicit eroticism. A jumbled reckoning with abuse that's as otherworldly as it is intensely corporeal. Recommended By Justin W., Powells.com

"A feverish combination of stream of conscious, autobiography, collage, and narrative, Skin marks the arrival of a truly original literary voice. Reminiscent of Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts, it is as omnivorous as the bodies within it, as unrestrained as the appetites, terrors, and trysts that celebrated author Bj rn Rasmussen evokes in poetic detail. Deeply emotional, erotic, elegiac, and pansexual, it caresses the wounds we visit upon our body and soul in an attempt to serve the urges of our largest organ--the skin that covers and defines us."--Entropy, Best Fiction of 2019

What if your first true love broke all known taboos? What if your very first romance drowned you in a whirlpool of transgression? A coming-of-age novel that is minutely in tune with the perversions of its narrator's body, The Skin Is the Elastic Covering that Encases the Entire Body defines category. The desperate account of a teenage boy in love with a much older riding instructor, it follows the unforgettable Bjorn as he pushes his flesh to its very limits, annihilating boundaries of gender and sexuality in a search for impossible gratification.

A feverish combination of stream of conscious, autobiography, collage, and narrative, Skin marks the arrival of a truly original literary voice. It is as omnivorous as the bodies within it, as unrestrained as the appetites, terrors, and trystings that celebrated author Bjorn Rasumssen evokes in poetic detail. Deeply emotional, erotic, elegiac, and pansexual, it caresses the wounds we visit upon our flesh and soul in an attempt to serve the urges of the body's largest organ--the skin that covers and defines us.