Skin

Order from the Canadian publisher here. Feel free to order from your favourite independent bookstore.

Ranging from the realistic to the speculative, the stories of Skin tackle the condition of our restless, unruly world amidst the tumult of viruses, climate change, and ecological crises, bringing to life unusual and perplexing intimacies: a man falls in love with the wind; a substitute teacher’s behaviour with a student brings unforeseen risks; a woman becomes fixated on offering foot washes to strangers. Bold, vital, and unmistakably of the moment, Skin gives a charged and animating voice to the question of how we face the world and how, in the process, we discover tenderness and allow ourselves to be transformed.

Conversations, Excerpts and Other Mentions

Praise for Skin

“Each story feels like a piece of a larger conversation about what it means to be human—vulnerable, longing, and forever in search of understanding. Skin is a haunting and beautifully crafted collection that solidifies Catherine Bush’s reputation as a writer of immense talent.” — Wayne Ng, Ottawa Review of Books

“Bush is a masterful storyteller with an utterly confident style that allows a reader to disappear inside her words and worlds … She deploys her short stories with soulful brevity, proving that distilled works of art like the short stories of Skin speak to the very ephemerality of life. These moments we live, these droplets on skin, these little breaths. Wildly recommended.” — Emily Weedon, The Seaboard Review

“The stories in Skin range from epistolary to experimental, some set in the past, some in the present, providing a showcase for Bush’s talents. There is a tenderness in these stories, not drenched in sentimentality, but constructed on a real, human foundation. Skin is at once fresh and vibrant while being a culmination of decades of practice and craft. … An exciting debut story collection by one of Canada’s master novelists.” — Jeffrey Dupuis, The Miramichi Reader

“Incisive and poetic, the prose communicates psychological depth with striking clarity…. The stories leave characters and readers alike suspended between what is said and unsaid. Richly layered and deeply resonant, Skin offers a tender reflection on the fragility of human nature.” — Selena Mercuri, The Literary Review of Canada

“Readers of Skin, take heed: this is one to be considered, savoured and celebrated.” — Sara Harms, The Winnipeg Free Press.

“In the footsteps of Mavis Gallant and Alice Munro, Bush carries the torch for Canadian fiction. From novella to shorter tales, she besieges skin to expose the kin and kindness within.” —Michael Greenstein, Atlantic Books Today.

“[Bush’s] writing is beautiful, far-reaching and intelligent, whether she’s tackling critical questions like climate change, crafting stories of danger, bravery and hope or telling seductive tales of desire and longing, families and strangers.” – Watershed Magazine.

“This was my first time reading Catherine Bush’s work, and I was truly blown away by the stories in Skin that intervened in my psyche, captivated my attention, and rippled my skin with goosebumps. This book is blisteringly good.” — Adelle Purdham, Instagram

“I just devoured Skin, Catherine Bush’s collection of thirteen short stories, all linked thematically by the thin layer of tissue, skin, that provides us mammals with protection but also helps us receive sensory stimuli from the outside world. Skin as veil. With astounding brevity, Bush sweeps across geographies, time, and perspectives. I was engrossed and taken off guard, at every word. A book for and of the moment we live in, as fires burn, glaciers melt and winds whip up into atmospheric soup, what dare we touch?” — Katerina Cizek, documentary filmmaker, online review

“Catherine Bush asks the most daring question, how do we connect? Not only with those close to us, but with strangers, the natural world, and a climate crisis. The characters in these stories make a bold reach across a void — I loved what I found on the other side, a collection that is incredibly tender, tumultuous, and touching.” – Claire Cameron, author of How to Survive a Bear Attack and The Last Neanderthal

“Skin is an intimate collection of stories that reveal people at their most vulnerable and their most dangerous. Subtle, stinging and beautifully observed, the title story still has its grip on my heart.” – Tessa McWatt, author of The Snag and The Snow Line

“Deftly woven through a thematic tapestry of surfaces and skin, these stories are memorable, riveting, and seismic. Catherine Bush pens tender anthems of verboten intimacy and familial survival, earth and flesh and glacial being.”  – David Huebert, author of Oil People and Chemical Valley

“Skin dives under the surface of relationships, revealing hidden streams of desire, longing, pain, and deliverance. In successive stories that are penetrating and absorbing, Catherine Bush also explores how we are deepening our love affair, in this time of climate storms and glacier melt, with the more-than-human world.” — Shaena Lambert, author of Petra and Oh, My Darling