Mark is tattooed all over, and has a chequered past. His body is like a dream landscape, a swirling blue-green vision of gryphons, serpents and clockfaces. He is married to Samantha and they live with their little girl, Sally. But Mark is haunted by a spectre in the shape of Tony, his ex-lover, who kidnaps Sally. The story of the rescue - which involves Sam s mother, Peggy, and her lover Iris, a modern-day Orlando - is hilarious, touching and (occasionally) surreal. Marked for Life is instantly engaging, and curiously compelling. Magrs world is suburbia with a strange erotic genders are switched, absent lovers remain bizarrely but sweetly attentive, and sex blossoms in unexpected circumstances. Laced with a dry humour and written in a prose that is both sensuous and acerbic, Marked for Life is a wonderfully original first novel.
