Frankissstein

A Love Story

By: Jeanette Winterson

Narrated by: John Sackville, Perdita Weeks, Harrison Knights

** LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019 **

Brought to you by Penguin.

From 'one of the most gifted writers working today' (New York Times) comes an audacious new novel about the bodies we live in and the bodies we desire

In Brexit Britain, a young transgender doctor called Ry is falling in love – against their better judgement – with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor leading the public debate around AI.

Meanwhile, Ron Lord, just divorced and living with Mum again, is set to make his fortune launching a new generation of sex dolls for lonely men everywhere.

Across the Atlantic, in Phoenix, Arizona, a cryogenics facility houses dozens of bodies of men and women who are medically and legally dead… but waiting to return to life.

But the scene is set in 1816, when nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley writes a story about creating a non-biological life-form. ‘Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.'

What will happen when homo sapiens is no longer the smartest being on the planet? Jeanette Winterson shows us how much closer we are to that future than we realise. Funny and furious, bold and clear-sighted, Frankissstein is a love story about life itself.

Critic reviews

A riotous reimagining with an energy and passion all of its own that reanimates Frankenstein as a cautionary tale for a contemporary moment dominated by debates about Brexit, gender, artificial intelligence and medical experimentation… While the story has a gripping momentum of its own, it also fizzes with ideas. (Daisy Hay)

Here, hard science and dreamy Romanticism exist in both tension and harmony… Frankissstein abounds with invention… this is a work of both pleasure and profundity, robustly and skilfully structured, and suffused with all Winterson’s usual preoccupations – gender, language, sexuality, the limits of individual liberty and the life of ideas. (Sam Byers)

A modern take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, it’s a fascinating and engrossing look at AI, science, gender fluidity and, ultimately, what it really means to be human. (Nicola Sturgeon)

Yes, the book we have all been waiting for. Yes, everything Winterson has always done so well. Yes, above and beyond anything that is yet to be written.

Astonishing. Bold. Teeming with wit and intellectual prowess. Winterson is a literary giant. She remains one of my favourite writers.

Winterson has had a surge of inventiveness… Frankissstein gamely links arms with the zeitgeist. {it} is a book that seeks to shift our perspective on humanity and the purpose of being human in the most darkly entertaining way… gloriously well observed .. I found myself vibrating with laughter.

Winterson reboots Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for the 21st Century, launching us into a hold-on-to-your hat modern-day horror story about very modern-day neuroses and issues.

Intelligent and inventive… Frankisstein is very funny. There has always been a fine line between horror and high camp, and this is a boundary that Winterson gleefully exploits.

Refreshingly, Jeanette Winterson’s Frankisstein… is a wildly inventive reimagining of one of science fiction’s most beloved stories… lyrical, gloriously raunchy, pulpy and absurd.

I was sad when I it ended, like leaving a friend

This is the second time I've read this book, the first time was in print and it just gets better from both the stories layers and the performance.

I am always amazed at where Jeanette takes us, the images she renders and the ideas that we are left with.

Truly terrible

The male narrator's American accent was so badly done that it was distracting. Overall terrible.

Yikes

Good: The performances were good (I’m a big fan of Perdita). And the story covered some interesting ideas about the future of artificial intelligence. I thought the retelling of Mary Shelley’s part of the story was well done.

Bad: truly awful and ignorant treatment of a trans character by the author. Ruined the book for me.