What if you were middle-aged and were offered the chance to trade in your sagging flesh for a much younger and more pleasing model? This is the situation in which one character in this collection of stories finds himself. Taking the plunge, he embarks on an odyssey of hedonism but soon has regrets.

What if you were middle-aged and were offered the chance to trade in your sagging flesh for a much younger and more pleasing model? This is the situation in which the main character of The Body finds himself. Taking the plunge, he embarks on an odyssey of hedonism, but soon finds himself regretting what he has left behind as the responsibilities he thought he had sloughed off now begin to come home to him. Sinister forces are pursuing him, wanting possession of his 'body', and he finds himself in a no-man's-land, uncertain which way to turn. Praise for Hanif Kureishi's previous collection, Midnight All Day: