Written on the Body

by Jeanette Winterson

In Brief

Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights: the accumulations of a lifetime gather there.

Our unreliable and ungendered narrator is having an affair with the beautiful, flame-haired Louise, and they are very much in love. Louise has cancer, and her scientist husband is the only one who can get her the treatment she needs - but only if our narrator agrees never to see her again.

Why you should read it

An unusual take on the classic love story, this is a poignant and poetic book that will make the reader constantly re-evaluate their conceptions of both the characters and of love itself.