Pig Tales: A Novel of Lust and Transformation : [translation]

Marie Darrieussecq

Faber & Faber, Limited, 1997 - Man-woman relationships - 135 pages

Pig Tales is a brilliant satirical novel about a stunning young woman working in a beauty 'massage' parlour. She enjoys extraordinary success at bringing home the bacon (in part due to her increasingly rosy and irresistible backside) until she slowly metamorphoses - into a pig. Rejected by her boyfriend, left to wander the sewers and forage for food in public parks, she takes up with a werewolf with insatiable appetites. They share everything (pizza is a particular favourite; she gets the pizza, he gets the delivery boy) until someone alerts the authorities and tragedy strikes . . . Gender, politics and social hypocrisy all come under scrutiny in this entertaining and enlightening novel. Pig Tales is a Metamorphosis for the present day, a dark fable of political and sexual corruption, and a grim warning of what can happen in a society without a soul.

What people are saying

Review: Pig Tales: A Novel of Lust and Transformation

User Review  - Henning - Goodreads

Few books have touched me as this one has! At the time of reading it, ten or so years ago, I actually got really scared and had a hard time sleeping for a couple of days. It's so bizarre but in a ...

Review: Pig Tales: A Novel of Lust and Transformation

User Review  - Joanna - Goodreads

I read it on a train, as a teenager. Even though the whole concept seemed kind of ingenious - a woman slowly and inevitably turning into a pig, but still it remains the most yucky book I have ever read.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Pig Tales: A Novel of Lust and Transformation : [translation]
• Author: Marie Darrieussecq
• Translated by: Linda Coverdale
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Faber & Faber, Limited, 1997
• ISBN: 0571193722, 9780571193721
• Length: 135 pages