The Gasteropod

A gasteropod is a mollusc or snail, like the specimens whose shimmering shells the narrator of this unusual novel keeps carefully organized in a special room in his gloomy mansion. He also collects photographs, thousands of them carefully preserved in albums in chronological order, recording with a perverse obsession each ephemeral moment of his wife's existence, every embrace with her lover, every wrinkle and mark of decay as she enters middle age. The novel takes place over the course of a single afternoon, as the narrator gazes on the pictures in a portrait gallery while he waits for the arrival of a woman with whom he has made a mysterious assignation. Through a series of flashbacks, his strange story gradually unfolds, like the convolutions of a seashell, leading to the final revelation of his macabre plan to make her the prize specimen of his collection ... Maggie Ross's first novel, The Gasteropod (1968), was critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for the best British novel of the year. This "chilling, delicate novel" (Pittsburgh Press) that "cannot fail to terrify its readers" (The Austin American) is a mesmerizing reading experience that will linger in readers' minds long after they have finished the book. 'The novel cannot fail to terrify its readers.' - The Austin American 'A literary marvel . . . a sharp, clever and devastating novel.' - El Paso Times 'A chilling, delicate novel . . . a fascinating experience in psychology.' - Pittsburgh Press 'A first novel of many shades and subtleties. If it makes you feel a bit claustrophobic, you can be sure it was meant to.' - Chicago Tribune 'A first novel of impressive originality and accomplishment.' - New Statesman 'Macabre, well-observed and elegantly constructed.' - Birmingham Evening Mail 'This is a dense and intelligent first novel, full of oddness and technical experiment and glittering with small, clever detail.' - The Guardian 'A clever, witty and marvellously well-written book.' - Listener 'The most skilful first novel by a woman since Iris Murdoch's Under the Net.' - Spectator