We can’t live without them, but we are sometimes unkind to our bodies. We eat the wrong things, drink, smoke, don’t exercise. Or we don’t eat anything, or we do too much and carelessly break our bones. But our bodies are incredible, adaptive, functional, beautiful. We can heal by ourselves, we can think, feel pleasure, taste and rest.



I am fascinated by the functionality of the body, by the systems that keep us alive, by the pure power of human cells.

As a nurse, I see bodies that are dysfunctional, failing, or have unusual genetic makeup. Science and medicine have enabled us to intervene, to diagnose, and improve health so that humans can live longer. But do we know the limit of what our bodies can do in their natural state? As a writer, I want to depict bodies in a visceral way. I want the magnificence of the human form to be palpable to the reader.

These novels imaginatively explore both the wonders of the human body and the perils it encounters.

1. Fanny Hill by John Cleland

Men writing as women were not uncommon in 18th-century literature, but these “Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure”, with their meticulous descriptions of copulation and the human form, are thought to be the first pornographic novel in the English language. Its intricate, graphic details of the bodies of both men and women are fascinating and unyielding. It is one of the most notorious books in history and is still a challenging read.



2. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin

Imagine a society that isn’t influenced by gender or sexual behaviour. The inhabitants of Gethen are androgynous, with the capability to transform their bodies from male to female during a once-monthly sexual expression. How does this genderless society survive? The male human protagonist Genly Ai struggles to comprehend the androgynous Gethenians; he is perturbed by the extraordinary femininity of seemingly male beings. But despite the endless ice and cold, friendship and understanding forms. The late author’s groundbreaking novel challenges societal constructs of gender and what it means to be a man or woman.



3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Shelley’s consciousness of the human form is constant in this ever-relevant masterpiece. Beyond the grotesque monster composed of human body parts, tortured by feelings of guilt and hungry for revenge, the reader is drawn to his creator Victor’s decaying and broken body and his weakened mind. There is as much monster in the man as there is man in the monster.

4. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

Clay thinks he needs a tan, thinks he needs a haircut, thinks he needs a fix. The body is coolly regarded in this stunning 80s-set, LA-based debut. Clay doesn’t care. His body is functional, well-maintained, good-looking. The bodies around him are thin, sexual, abused, but his interest in them only evokes one distant emotion: disgust. More shocking than his attitudes to drugs and sex is Clay’s inability to do or say anything; he can only observe the decay around him and try to disappear.



5. Indelible by Adelia Saunders

The body reveals much more to Magdalena than other people. Her gift allows her to read words written on others’ skins that spell out their intimate secrets. To Magdalena, her talent is torturous; what can you do with such knowledge? How does it change things? And what do you do with the guilt of foreseeing but failing to avert tragedy? Magdalena’s own skin is blank, without any words, and I wonder, does this give her more or less power over her own fate?



Emotion and wit … Sara Pascoe. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

6. Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body by Sarah Pascoe

The evolution of the human species has never been more relevant to modern women and attitudes towards sex. Written with emotion and wit, comedian Pascoe takes readers through the history and science of the female body. Body image and relationships are examined in relation to nature; her descriptions of the body and sex are graphic, frank and accessible, shot through with charm and humour.



7. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

Food is a powerful stirrer of emotions. (I have particular issues with custard. The smell alone makes me shudder with the memory of gloopy, cold school dinners.) But imagine discovering at a young age, as Rose does, an extrasensory ability to taste the emotions of others through the food that they prepare. The focus of this book is on the pain and sadness that comes with knowing too much about those you love. Rose copes by turning away from food that she can’t bear to swallow. She takes solace in heavily processed foods, where the emotions of the farmers and factories are diluted through time and space. Bender alludes to her protagonist’s unique physiology through the Brillat-Savarin quote: “Food is all those substances which, submitted to the action of the stomach, can be assimilated or changed into life by digestion, and can thus repair the losses which the human body suffers through the act of living.”



8. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach

Unafraid to ask the awkward questions about the body that most people want to know the answers to but don’t want on their internet browser history, Roach delves into the darkness of the digestive system to reveal the glorious and gruesome truths about the human body.



9. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The children of Hailsham school are taught to care for and respect their bodies. Their regime includes healthy eating, sports and frequent medical examinations. But although Tommy, Ruth and Kathy live seemingly privileged lives, the reader feels the cast-off nature of their surroundings. They are secondhand lives, clones who are being readied for their fate as adults, when they will “complete” and hand on their organs. Ishiguro’s masterful narrative subtly weaves anxieties over cloning through a touching story of love and helplessness. His characters’ bodies are not their own, and their acceptance of this is truly heartbreaking.

10. Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

Sarah has left-sided neglect, an obscure neurological condition caused by a traumatic brain injury following a car crash. She is unable to perceive or process stimuli on her left side, affecting her vision, memory and mobility. Her inability to look after herself and her small children independently is heartbreaking. Frustration rises from her loss of control. Her ideas of success, happiness and fulfilment have to shift in order for her to find a new quality of life. Genova’s background in neuroscience brings realism and emotion to the process of recovery and rehabilitation from brain injury.

