★《衛報》、作者Anna Funder、Larissa Behrendt等人全數好評

一部通達人心，探討「皮膚」之作，剖析人類情感、互動，以及縝密的文化之網。

「皮膚」是我們身體最大的器官。我們與之接觸，將它納入視線的頻率如此之高，以致於我們對它的存在感到習以為常。然而，無論是就生理、文化、個人意識等層面來看，「皮膚」都將導引我們洞悉人類情感以及世界脈絡。

皮膚是我們身上最有力的屏障之一，它免於病毒、細菌入侵脆弱的人體。它亦是我們身上最直接的接觸媒介，每當我們對鍾愛的人事物感到愛意，我們情不自禁擁抱、親吻；同時相反的，當憤怒與不快充斥人心，上升為暴力舉動，我們與他人的推擠拉扯，正是皮膚間最情緒化的接觸形式。

而人們歷來對於膚色的敏感，牽涉到世世代代難以完全消融的歧視、不公、抗議，以及伴隨其中的發聲、平等與自由。膚色不該單單淪為我們評論他人的用途，而歷史的教訓，也再再讓我們於層出不窮的種族、文化議題中，學著走出過去的謬誤。

《Skin Deep》集結作者與種族歧視者、受害者、燒傷者、整形醫師等人的對談與研究，發展為一部既讓讀者理解皮膚的生理意義，更從中看見文化與個人形塑的作品。它富有洞見與智慧，讓我們學會正視那個代表自我的源頭。

 

Phillipa McGuinness，澳洲知名作者。她著有《The Year Everything Changed-2001》，此作品入圍昆士蘭文學獎、阿德雷德文學藝術獎決選作品，同時她也是《Copyfight》一書的編輯。McGuiness其餘文章散見於《衛報》、《雪梨晨鋒報》以及《格里菲斯評論》等。

 

‘I loved this book. Skin Deep is a wild and wonderful ride from the outside in. I laughed and gasped with McGuinness as she explores, with characteristic wit and sympathy, the extraordinary world of skin, and in the end, I felt better about my own. It's for anyone who has ever blushed, itched, inked, sweated - hot or cold - or felt the wonder of another. McGuinness has gone deep under the skin in all its shades, conditions, marvels and misreadings to produce a sparkling and deeply sympathetic look below the surface into our deepest selves.’ - Anna Funder, Author


‘Skin Deep is an insightful, witty polemic that shows what’s on the outside tells us as much about ourselves as what’s on the inside. From the cosmetic to the constructs of race, Phillipa leaves no pore unexamined in the multifaceted ways our skin defines us.’ - Larissa Behrendt, Author

‘McGuinness is a confident, conversational guide, pulling research and references from interviews, historical records, personal experiences and social media, and threading them into an easy- to-follow narrative that will have you filing various things away for cocktail chatter with friends. Skin Deep is a welcome take on an all-too-frequently overlooked subject.’ - Readings Monthly, Jackie Tang

‘McGuinness uses skin as a springboard to explore a cross section of vital issues and ideas, ranging from racism to beauty, from cancer to loneliness. It's an ambitious task that McGuinness takes on with gusto and skill. The greatest strength of Skin Deep is the insights it achieves by blending stories with science. McGuinness peppers the prose with her dry wit, making Skin Deep a warm and accessible book. It's clear in every line that she has done her research and her curiosity and clear enthusiasm are contagious. Skin Deep is a thorough and varied analysis of something that is so crucial and visible, and yet remains unsung.’ - The Saturday Paper, Elizabeth Flux

‘Achieving something this broad in less than 300 pages while also avoiding hopeless generalisations might prove daunting to most writers. Yet McGuinness proves more than equal to the challenge. She does an admirable job of balancing the biological with the social, calling upon a wide range of reference points from dermatology, plastic surgery, cosmetology, public health, politics, literature, and activism (among many other fields) to figure out what our skin is and what it means. McGuinness’ writing is witty, wise, and empathetic in equal measure.’ – Artshub, Michael Hannan

‘I am morbidly obsessed with this insightful, well-researched and considered book on that most visible organ that envelopes us as mammals. It's a fascinating read, and a very accessible one too.’ - Roaring Stories

‘The fields of expertise she draws upon are equally wide-ranging, and McGuinness brings these different kinds of knowledge into contact with each other with energy and skill: scientists sit beside historians beside authors; she speaks to activists, geneticists, YouTubers, cultural theorists, anthropologists, and clinicians of both wellness and medical training. McGuinness has a remarkable ability to write about scientific concepts and processes in a way that is accessible and lucid, and deploys her cheeky, geeky sense of humour, usually in swift asides, to offset some of the book’s more difficult material. Her discussion of race, without which any book about skin would be glaringly incomplete, is skilful without being showy, drawing together genetics, colonial and political history, and anti-racist movements, all the while largely (and quietly) foregrounding the words of people of colour. McGuinness’s natural inquisitiveness, and her ability to make the most familiar topics feel fresh, make her explorations always fascinating and full of marvel.’ - The Guardian, Fiona Wright

'I’ve just finished reading Skin Deep - Phillipa effortlessly moves between science, philosophy, social commentary and holds a mirror up to some of the biggest issues involving our biggest organ - our skin. She does so with warm engagement and intelligent humour with the end result that you are subliminally educated and informed without actually realising it!’ - Professor Anand Deva BSc(Med), MBBS(Hons), MS, FRACS, Head, Cosmetic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Macquarie Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery | Surgical Infection Research Group