'A troubling, hammering and glorious novel' DAVID MITCHELL

On the edge of the Antarctic Circle, in the years after World War One, a steamship approaches a desolate island. On board is a young man on his way to assume the post of weather observer, to live in solitude for a year at the end of the earth. But on shore he finds no trace of the man whom he has been sent to replace, just a deranged castaway who has witnessed a horror he refuses to name. The rest is woods, a deserted cabin, rocks, silence and the surrounding sea. Then night begins to fall . . .

"Thrillingly vivid . . . Sánchez Piñol creates a struggle for survival that is, at the same time, a meditation on humanity" - * The Times *

"Beguiling . . . Piñol's dark tale lingers long after the shivers running down the spine have ceased" - * The Scotsman *

"A creepily compelling debut from this Barcelona-based author that reads like a sinister version of a Boy's Own survival adventure" - * Financial Times *

"Superbly controlled and creepy . . . Akin to Lord of the Flies or Heart of Darkness rewritten as pulp-horror schlock" - * The Independent on Sunday *

"Astonishing . . . There is something of Edgar Allan Poe . . . In general, however, Cold Skin would appear to be an example of that rare thing: an original story which emerged, immaculately and unexpectedly, from its author's subconscious" - * Times Literary Supplemant *

"Brilliantly suspenseful" - * Spectator *