Like many readers, I was drawn to this book because it is set in and around Hampstead Heath.

The first half is anyway. I loved how atmospheric this section was. I felt like I was a queer teen hanging around the Men's Ponds, chatting to some older guys, wondering if they knew where my dad had gone.

The second half is quite the flash-forward, to a different era and location. Matty is grown and travelling around Ireland in his van, still looking in vain for his father.

Andrew is a very evocative writer. The descriptions of wild swimming transported me to the ponds, and the way she seeds information makes this story take you to unexpected places. It's been nearly six months since I read this book, but it has stayed with me in a way that makes me think it could be my favourite book of 2021.

It’s the summer of 1985 in London’s Golders Green and 11 year old Matty’s father, Joe, goes missing. Told from Matty’s perspective, we really identify with that powerlessness of youth, as no one will explain where Joe has gone and what might have happened. Matty visits the Men's Pond at Hampstead Heath, searching for Joe, and develops a love of wild swimming. The loss has a huge impact on Matty’s life and it is no surprise that 14 years later, Matty’s search continues, now in Joe’s homeland of Ireland. Like Kerry Andrew’s previous novel, there is an element of folklore woven into the narrative, which works well. I found it an original and moving read.

I struggled a little with this but I think that is more a reflection on me. Think it was beyond me a little conceptually.

"Skin" is a multi-layered and intriguing Bildungsroman that is elevated by Andrew's prose. With the initial chapters genuinely setting the tone of the rest of the novel, the story takes some wild turns whilst staying true to the overarching theme of identity.

Skin is a surprising mix of fable (I caught some allusions but the additional context at the end was helpful!) and social realism, exploring gender identity, the restorative power of nature and swimming, family and loss, with some slightly unexpected thriller elements thrown in for good measure. Really quite beautiful and lyrical, and some intriguing twists along the way.

There’s a lot I liked in this novel: the identity theme, the wild swimming, the travelling by camper van, the twist at the end of the first part. I found the second part, situated in Ireland, too diffuse and somewhat unbelievable though. 3,5 stars rounded down.
Thank you Jonathan Cape and Netgalley for the ARC.

This was a really entertaining read, the story unique and inventive, this is a moving tale of loss. One of my favourite reads of recent times. Highly recommended!

Loved this book, an intricate exploration of loss, queer and ethnic identity, parenting and wild swimming. Matty's dad Joe, leaves one day unexpectedly thus starting a quest to find out what happened and where he went. First clue takes Matty to the Men's pond on Hampstead Heath where the gay men are gentle and kind and take care of this lost child searching for their father. There are reveals that I won't spoil, some of which I guessed but all propel the plot along as well as the exploration into all the layers that go into making us human beings. I enjoyed that process of investigating what makes us who we are. I also really loved the connection to Ireland especially when Matty is in the camper van driving from lough to lough searching for Joe whilst swimming in all the blue. There is some wonderful prose about both the beauty of Ireland and the water including the rain. I found this book to be original in the way that it presented and explored the key themes and it was an exciting and at times relatable read.

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm sure Skin will appeal to fans of books such as Shuggie Bain but I had a hard time with it. The 3rd pov refers to Matty's parents as dad and mamma which was really grating. It would have made sense if he was narrating things directly but he wasn't. The style of writing, which often consists of simple phrases, tries to mimic the way a child thinks but again...it was irritating. Readers can understand that Matty is a child and there was no need for the prose to go out of its way to remind us that he thinks in simple staccato sentences. Matty's mother is Italian and, dare I say, as an Italian I was not entirely convinced of the Italian or the Italian characters in the story.

If you've ever felt uncomfortable in your own skin or not sure if you belong then this is the story for you. It takes a long while to unfold and reveal itself. The reader is not always completely sure what is real. Matty is 11 when Joe disappears. Mother Rosa is deeply unhappy and often takes it out on Matty. To escape, Matty takes up cold water swimming and it becomes the one constant in life. About a third of the way through the book, the story moves on 15 years. Matty tries again to find Joe in rural Ireland. The story is unexpected and fraught as it explores gender and identity in a sensitive and thoughtful way.

Skin is a multi-layered novel about a hunt for a lost father, set in the ponds at Hampstead Heath and in Irish loughs. In London in 1985, Matty's father Joe disappears, and nobody will explain what happened. Over the summer, Matty searches for Joe at the Men's Pond, where Joe may have been last seen, and discovers the freedom of the water. Fourteen years later, Matty travels around Ireland in a campervan, wild swimming in loughs and trying to follow up a lead that might unravel the secrets of the past.

I didn't really know what to expect from Skin, but picked it up as I'd read Andrew's previous novel, Swansong, and I found myself enjoying this one more. Matty is a compelling character (with a few too relatable elements that were well-written, but going into would be giving away too much about the book's twists, which at least some readers won't expect) with a believable lack of direction and compulsion to find out what happened to Joe. The motif around wild swimming, identity, and body was nicely done, and as someone who has never had an urgent to swim outdoors before, it did make me almost want to give it a go (despite the endless drowning imagery). The narrative has some twists and turns, with elements of other genres coming in at times, and it was woven together well to make a complex story. I was glad the ending wasn't as bleak as it could've been, perhaps due to connecting with Matty as a character, and I felt the novel balances the literary, folklore elements with the character-driven narrative well.

Skin turned out to be a book I didn't know I needed but I did, one which combines loss, journeys, gender, sexuality, and water in inventive ways. I'm not usually a fan of books where a character goes off into the Irish wilderness to look for something, but in this case I'll make an exception, and I found the scenes at the Hampstead Heath ponds really evocative. Matty is likely to stay with me for a while.

When Joe Ronan sets off to work one morning in 1985, it seems just like any other day. But Joe fails to return to his London home in the evening. It seems as if he has disappeared in thin air, leaving his wife Rosa and eleven-year old Matty none the wiser. Matty believes that Joe is dead, an impression which Rosa actively encourages. Joe has last been seen at the Highgate’s Men’s Pond, and Matty starts to spend whole days there, hoping to discover a solution to the mystery of Joe’s disappearance, a solution which seems increasingly out of reach. Among the diverse community of the Pond, Matty gains new perspectives on life, and develops a taste for wild swimming, the last link to a missing dad. Fourteen years later, Matty, still living an untethered life, goes on a trip to Ireland, where Joe originally came from. What seems like a hare-brained scheme, will turn into a journey of discovery for Matty.

Kerry Andrew is a multi-talented artist. I first came across her work as a composer and vocalist in both classical and alt-folk spheres, and was then bowled over by her debut novel Swansong, a contemporary reworking of a Celtic ballad. Since then, she has been won her fourth British Composer Award and been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award.
I was very excited to read her new novel “Skin” but, having just completed it, I must admit that I am in two minds about it. I will try to explain my reaction, even though admittedly it is a frustrating novel to review. “Skin” has a twist at the end of its first part and it would be unfair to reveal it, even though not revealing it makes it difficult to discuss the novel as whole. Suffice it to say that Andrew’s sleight of hand is particularly effective because rather than just propel the plot (as twists are wont to do), this development is central to Matty’s character and, by implication, strikes at the heart of the novel itself.

Indeed, the initial chapters of Skin are intriguing and enigmatic, and possibly the best part of the novel. When the action turns to 1999 and Matty’s Irish visit, the novel tends to become too diffuse, even though there are moments of great beauty, as in the descriptions of Matty’s swims in freezing loughs (wild swimming is an activity Kerry Andrew knows well, and served as inspiration for her chamber-opera Dart’s Love.)

Skin has the makings of an interesting and different Bildungsroman, in which Matty finally makes sense of past events and starts to live anew. However, the novel becomes embroiled in subplots which seem to have walked (swum?) in from a different book, including half-hearted stabs at romance and even elements of crime fiction. The final chapters move dangerously close to schmalz. I have my sentimental side and did not mind that at all. But that didn’t make the ending any less improbable.

In the concluding Author’s Note Kerry Andrew teases out folkloric elements in her novel, particularly the references to water myths (which inspired her folk album Keld). Certain passages in “Skin” do have echoes of magical realism, but I felt that the mythical element is much less present here than in Andrew’s debut novel.

All in all, “Skin” is worth reading, especially for its portrayal of Matty. But I must confess my reaction was less enthusiastic than for Swansong.

I don't want to give anything away but the story of Skin was engaging and one of the best most generally interesting things I've read recently. I particularly enjoyed the protagonist as a character, and the only big drawback to me was the resolution seeming weaker than the build up.