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Form very much reflects subject matter in Jeanette Winterson’s astonishing new novel, as the celebrated author of Oranges are Not the Only Fruit splices together the iconic narrative of Frankenstein with a modern day dissection of AI, cryogenics and synthetic humanity. As any Winterson reader might expect, there’s plenty of wry, tongue-in-cheek, black humour to her lively and energetic reanimation of Mary Shelley’s man-made monster novel. The result is a magnificently macabre fable about body image and body horror that encompasses some of the most contentious and pertinent issues of the day.
Shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize 2020
Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2019
Longlisted for the Polari Book Prize 2020
From 'one of the most gifted writers working today' (New York Times) comes an audacious new novel about the bodies we live in and the bodies we desire
In Brexit Britain, a young transgender doctor called Ry is falling in love - against their better judgement - with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor leading the public debate around AI. Meanwhile, Ron Lord, just divorced and living with Mum again, is set to make his fortune launching a new generation of sex dolls for lonely men everywhere.
Across the Atlantic, in Phoenix, Arizona, a cryogenics facility houses dozens of bodies of men and women who are medically and legally dead... but waiting to return to life. But the scene is set in 1816, when nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley writes a story about creating a non-biological life-form. 'Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.'
What will happen when homo sapiens is no longer the smartest being on the planet? Jeanette Winterson shows us how much closer we are to that future than we realise. Funny and furious, bold and clear-sighted, Frankissstein is a love story about life itself.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781784709952
Number of pages: 352
Weight: 248 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 21 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'... like a patchwork of essays on the postmodern condition…very funny.' - The Saturday Times
'This artificial intelligence (AI) love-story-of-sorts is a clever comic romp that teases at the nature - and future - of life, death and what it is to be human without ever being ponderous' - The Daily Mail
'A book about artificial intelligence and gender fluidity that also harks back to themes Winterson has been writing about for the past 30 years: love and desire, transformation and the unwritten meanings of the body.' - The Observer
'...a riotous reimagining with an energy and passion all of its own…' - The Financial Times
'Winterson reboots Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for the 21st Century, launching us into a hold-on-to-your hat modern-day horror story about very modern-day neuroses and issues.' - Rebecca Thomas, BBC News
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“Winterson brings a new relevance to Frankenstein's Monster”
As Victor Frankenstein stitched together limbs in his gothic laboratory, so Jeanette Winterson weaves past and present meditations of man-made consciousness to create her latest novel, Frankissstein.
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“Immersive and thought-provoking”
Lake Geneva, 1816: Mary Shelley dreams of a scientist who creates a non-biological life form. When challenged by Lord Byron to write a gothic tale, she starts working on the story that will become known to the world... More
“A timely reimagining of a classic”
This book contains at least two linked tales and the first is one we are, in part. familiar with: that of Mary Shelley, trapped in a villa by appalling weather with Lord Byron, Dr Polidori, her husband, Percy Bysshe... More
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