<p>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.</p><p>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 ...</p><p>Maggie Ross's first novel, <em>The Gasteropod</em> (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" (<em>Pittsburgh Press</em>) that "cannot fail to terrify its readers" (<em>The Austin American</em>) is a mesmerizing reading experience that will linger in readers' minds long after they have finished the book.</p><p>'The novel cannot fail to terrify its readers.' - <em>The Austin American</em></p><p>'A literary marvel . . . a sharp, clever and devastating novel.' - <em>El Paso Times</em></p><p>'A chilling, delicate novel . . . a fascinating experience in psychology.' - <em>Pittsburgh Press</em></p><p>'A first novel of many shades and subtleties. If it makes you feel a bit claustrophobic, you can be sure it was meant to.' - <em>Chicago Tribune</em></p><p>'A first novel of impressive originality and accomplishment.' - <em>New Statesman</em></p><p>'Macabre, well-observed and elegantly constructed.' - <em>Birmingham Evening Mail</em></p><p>'This is a dense and intelligent first novel, full of oddness and technical experiment and glittering with small, clever detail.' - <em>The Guardian</em></p><p>'A clever, witty and marvellously well-written book.' - <em>Listener</em></p><p>'The most skilful first novel by a woman since Iris Murdoch's<em> Under the Net</em>.' - <em>Spectator</em></p>
