Boy Parts

One of Granta's Best Young British Novelists 2023

An incendiary debut novel from a brash new talent—a pitch-black comedy, both shocking and hilarious, which fearlessly explores sexuality and gender roles in the twenty-first century.

“Hallucinogenic, electric and sharp, Boy Parts is a whirlwind exploration of gender, class, and power.”—Jessica Andrews, author of Saltwater

Exiled from the art world and on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, Irina, the novel's sharp and unreliable narrator, obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle.

But her talent has not gone unnoticed, and Irina is invited to display her work at a fashionable London gallery. It is a chance to revive her career and escape from the rut of drugs, alcohol, and extreme cinema she’s fallen into. Yet the news instead triggers a self-destructive tailspin of obsession, centered around Irina’s consuming relationship with her best friend, and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention. . . .