Skin

Tobias Hill Press Reviews

'The first collection of short stories by the poet and critic Tobias Hill could serve as a masterclass in the genre ... Quite apart from the excellence of their construction and the quality of the writing, these stories, with their many and far-ranging voices, all have a cool, clear beauty' Sunday Telegraph

'Whether exploring the despair of a Yakuza hitman or the grief of a bereaved father, Hill reveals the pain beneath the shimmering surface. What's more, the repetition of names and locations around the world, and the careful echoing of detail, transmutes these tales into a subtle and stylish novel' Time Out

'His prose resonates with the precise, sensuous energy of his poetry. He writes with astonishing assurance' Observer

'The poetry of his writing lies in its surprise and precision - a smell of mustard in the flash of a gun, for instance, which would have delighted Nabokov - or an understated lyricism which recalls Raymond Carver ... Already an award-winning poet, Skin establishes Tobias Hill as an important writer of fiction' The Times

'Outstanding ... 27-year-old Tobias Hill has written verse about his two-year stay in Japan, and this preoccupation is developed in 'Skin', the longest tale, dealing with the grizzly death of a Yakuza who has a full-body tattoo - most of the corpse has been dissolved with acid, so the detective-hero must identify the remains by looking for clues in the text of his skin. The other stories are equally consuming. Altogether, Hill's fictional debut is a work of great intelligence' Guardian

'An antidote to all those frail, go-nowhere exercises in solipsism you might expect from a debut collection ... A distinctive and sensitive first collection from an assured new voice' Independent on Sunday

'Excellent ... Hill proves himself adept at evoking foreign voices and locales by accumulating significant detail' Sunday Times