Pig Tales follows an unnamed narrator who becomes employed as a sex worker. A dazzling beauty, she’s both desired by men and envied by women – until she starts to transform into a pig. As a woman, the narrator’s ability to earn a living is completely reliant on how beautiful she can look – so is her welcomeness in her own home, as evidenced by her boyfriend turfing her out of his flat when she could no longer fit in a bathing suit. Her animal instincts make her a social outcast, a monster. Once she no longer has value as a sexual object, she is ultimately discarded. Though the novel is whimsical in concept, the narrator’s transformation into a sow and the events that follow are truly stomach turning. Sure, she gets to splash around in muddy puddles, but she’s also hunted, tormented and sexually assaulted – frankly, the number of taboos this novel squeezes into 130 pages is pretty staggering. MG

Faber