Winner of the Guardian First Book Award 2004
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This is a book about Siamese twins, people with extra
digits, cyclops, dwarves, hermaphrodites, giants, and a pig with two faces. It
was accompanied by a Channel 4 documentary when first published. Already you
might have formed some impression of this book, but you might be surprised to
learn it is a sensitive book that doesn’t treat its subject matter like carnival
freaks—though many of the characters in the book were in carnivals. Instead, the
book deals with dignity with its themes to show how important mutations are for
all of us. In Leroi’s words, “We are all mutants. But some of us are more
mutant than others.” In fact, you probably have about 100 mutations that were
not given to you by your parents. But which ones did you get?
