Shape-Shifter - Softcover

'Notably sharp, funny original, part Caribbean magic, part London grime, written in a slippery, chameleon language that is a frequent delight' SALMAN RUSHDIE 'An exceptionally talented writer of prose fiction - Melville's descriptive powers are especially acute' Times Literary Supplement 'With immense verve and skill she shows how the English language has been taken over and transformed by those people whose ancestors were forced to speak it. A very impressive and enjoyable first book' Sean French, New Statesman & Society

From Comrade Shakespeare McNab who enlists the help of La Diablesse to retrieve his faltering career at a Caribbean broadcasting station, to the fourteen-year-old English girl who develops a terror of infi nity; from the electrifying description of a woman attacked as she lies sleeping, to the lyrical exploration of myths of El Dorado, Pauline Melville lures the reader into intriguing different worlds. The sheer malevolence of everyday life is offset with hilarity, making these stories both unsettling and funny.