Body Language

In these health conscious days we're all used to the idea that we have a body we should respect and care for. Yet is this right? Would it not be truer to admit that it's our body that's in control, and that it's doing a far from perfect job of caring for us? The characters in this book are discovering answers to these questions as they find themselves seduced and buffeted by diverse anatomical parts, their own and other peoples'. Whether it's Rory with his bowels, his mate Bobby from the football team with his new breast, Laura with her antique marble foot, her aunt Gloria from the massage parlour with her gammy hip, or Hamish with his hyperactive thyroid--they're all trying to find the language for what's happening to them. But it's not easy to talk anatomy; the functions and malfunction, when it's the body itself doing the talking. And as they talk, as they love, loathe and fight, it's not just a map of the body physical that's being drawn, but also a period--1999, and a place--the city of Edinburgh, to which they are all attached. For better and for worse, in sickness and in health, in marriage and divorce, the men and women are held together in this book by some-thing more tha