Award-winning author Nalo Hopkinson's first collection is Skin Folk, and its 15 stories are as strong and beautiful as her novels.

"The Glass Bottle Trick" retells the Bluebeard legend in a Caribbean setting and rhythms, for a sharp, chilling examination of love, gender, race, and class. In the myth-tinged "Money Tree," a Canadian immigrant's greed sends him back to Jamaica in pursuit of an accursed pirate treasure. In "Slow Cold Chick," a woman must confront the deadly cockatrice that embodies her suppressed desires. In the postapocalyptic science fantasy "Under Glass," events in one world affect those in another, and a child's carelessness may doom them both. The lightest of fantastic imagery touches "Fisherman," a tropically hot tale of sexual awakening, and one of the five original stories in Skin Folk. --Cynthia Ward


From Publishers Weekly
Caribbean folklore informs many of the 15 stories, ranging from fabulist to mainstream, in this literary first short-fiction collection from Nebula and Hugo awards-nominee Hopkinson (Brown Girl in a Ring; Midnight Robber). Notable in the folk-tale vein is "Riding the Red," about Red Riding Hood, now a grandma, and her primal relationship with the wolf. Unlikable protagonists feature in several remarkable stories. In "Greedy Choke Puppy" a bitter woman discards her skin at night and kills children for their life-force. In "Under Glass," set in a postapocalyptic Earth scoured by glass storms, a girl caught outside during a storm realizes what it means to be too hard-hearted. Other stories celebrate life as characters learn to come to terms with what and who they are. In "A Habit of Waste," Cynthia, formerly black but now in a new, white body, brings food to an indigent man, only to discover that he has unexpected resources. "Slow Cold Chick" follows Blaise, the terrified owner of a rapidly growing cockatrice, as she gains the courage to speak her mind. Hopkinson implies that the extraordinary is part of the fabric of day-to-day life. Her descriptions of ordinary people finding themselves in extraordinarily circumstances ring true, the result of her strong evocation of place and her ear for dialect. Some stories meander, but underneath them all is a sure grasp of humanity, good and bad, and the struggle to understand and to communicate. Agent, Don Maass. (Dec. 1)Forecast: Though marketed as science fiction, this collection should hand-sell to fans of multicultural fiction. Born in Jamaica, Hopkinson grew up in Guyana, Trinidad and Canada, her current home.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
From a brief but compelling reenvisioning of a classic fairy tale ("Riding the Red") to a haunting tale of a young woman remembering who she really is ("And the Lilies Them A-Blow"), this collection of 15 stories, some of them previously published, demonstrates Hopkinson's lyrical prose and unabashed inventiveness. The author of Brown Girl in the Ring and Midnight Robber, she combines a richly textured multicultural background with incisive storytelling. For most libraries. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Hopkinson has already captured readers with her unique combination of Caribbean folklore, sensual characters, and rhythmic prose. These stories further illustrate her broad range of subjects, from a Web designer who discovers an unusual ability to alter the pixels of real people to a young girl struggling to survive in a postapocalyptic world where the very air and water are suffused with ground glass. Intensity of feeling, whether familial or sexual, is her stock in trade, and each character's conflict is realized with elegant simplicity. There are several spicy scenes, including one hilarious and alarming encounter between two high-tech bodysuits designed to enhance pleasure for their owners but who discover each other instead. This collection could serve as a delightful introduction to her substantial and entertaining novels, though readers already acquainted with the novels should certainly enjoy the stories, too. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Download Description
"Throughout the Caribbean [there are] stories about people who aren't what they seem. Skin gives these folk their human shape. When the skin comes off, their true selves emerge. And whatever the burden their skin bears, once they remove it, skin folk can

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Nalo Hopkinson, award-winning author of Brown Girl in the Ring and Midnight Robber, has released an impressive collection of short stories entitled Skin Folk. Hopkinson -- who was born in Jamaica and grew up in Guyana, Trinidad, and Canada -- delves into diverse world ranging from Caribbean folklore to fantastical horror to dark erotic fiction.

My favorite story was easily "Snake," the eerie tale of a serial child molester. The pervert, Stryker, goes to the park next to an elementary school every morning to watch the kids. He is a freak in every sense of the word. He is obsessed with cleanliness: He washes his hands over and over and has to clean his shoes inside and out as soon as he gets home from work. Every day, while he sits in the park watching the little girls, he also observes a group of seniors who practice ta'i chi, as well as an elderly couple who walk through the park and feed the birds. When he finally decides that he must add another little girl to his "collection," he gets an unpleasant surprise￯﾿ﾽ.

Short story collections give the reader an opportunity to experience a writer from several perspectives -- background, culture, visions, and philosophies -- and this anthology is no different. Hopkinson has a unique, poetic way of looking at the world. ("The pears looked like the bodies of plump, freckled green women.") And not unlike collections by authors such as Milan Kundera and Jerzy Kosinski, this collection offered me a glimpse into a culture I previously knew little about.

Not having read Hopkinson before, I didn't really know what to expect. However, I didn't expect the stories to be so well crafted and brilliantly written. Skin Folk gets my highest recommendation. (Paul Goat Allen)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Nalo Hopkinson has gained universal acclaim as one of the most impressively original authors to emerge in years. Her debut novel, Brown Girl in the Ring, won the Locus Award for Best First Novel, became a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, and garnered Hopkinson the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her second novel, Midnight Robber, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards. Now she presents Skin Folk, a richly vibrant collection of short fiction that ranges from Trinidad to Toronto, from fantastic folklore to frightening futures, from houses of deadly haunts to realms of dark sexuality. Powerful and sensual, disturbing and triumphant, these tales explore the surface of modern existence... and delve under the skin of eternal legends.

SYNOPSIS

Throughout the Caribbean are stories of people who aren't what they seem. Skin gives them their human shape, but when the skin comes off, their true selves emerge.

FROM THE CRITICS

Dallas Morning News

An important new writer.

San Francisco Chronicle

Hopkinson's use of language is sometimes shocking and usually entrancing; she flinches from nothing.

Washington Post Book World

Vivid and immediate.

Publishers Weekly

Caribbean folklore informs many of the 15 stories, ranging from fabulist to mainstream, in this literary first short-fiction collection from Nebula and Hugo awards-nominee Hopkinson (Brown Girl in a Ring; Midnight Robber). Notable in the folk-tale vein is "Riding the Red," about Red Riding Hood, now a grandma, and her primal relationship with the wolf. Unlikable protagonists feature in several remarkable stories. In "Greedy Choke Puppy" a bitter woman discards her skin at night and kills children for their life-force. In "Under Glass," set in a postapocalyptic Earth scoured by glass storms, a girl caught outside during a storm realizes what it means to be too hard-hearted. Other stories celebrate life as characters learn to come to terms with what and who they are. In "A Habit of Waste," Cynthia, formerly black but now in a new, white body, brings food to an indigent man, only to discover that he has unexpected resources. "Slow Cold Chick" follows Blaise, the terrified owner of a rapidly growing cockatrice, as she gains the courage to speak her mind. Hopkinson implies that the extraordinary is part of the fabric of day-to-day life. Her descriptions of ordinary people finding themselves in extraordinarily circumstances ring true, the result of her strong evocation of place and her ear for dialect. Some stories meander, but underneath them all is a sure grasp of humanity, good and bad, and the struggle to understand and to communicate. Agent, Don Maass. (Dec. 1) Forecast: Though marketed as science fiction, this collection should hand-sell to fans of multicultural fiction. Born in Jamaica, Hopkinson grew up in Guyana, Trinidad and Canada, her current home. Copyright 2001 Cahners BusinessInformation.

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