'Life isn’t solely a matter of individual will and agency'

The novel seems to suggest that the body is both the one thing we truly own, and the one thing that betrays us most.

- Rutvik Bhandari

Was that the paradox you wanted to examine — the body as both home and prison?

Absolutely, and that’s a very nice way of putting it actually. The body defines who we are in some sense, I mean, we are our body. But as you say, it also places limitations on us of various kinds: absolute limitations, really. The word prison might be a bit extreme (laughs) but yes, I think that was a driving idea in the background of the writing process. Definitely.

The title makes us think of skin, desire, decay, appetites — but it is also strangely impersonal, as if you've stripped the human of individuality. Were you trying to write about the human animal, rather than “a man” as a social being?

Yes, very much so. The idea of the human as animal is quite prominent in the book. But it is also present with human society. I don't think they're two entirely separate things. I mean, the nature of human society and the way it's built is a reflection of the animal nature of each individual human, to a certain extent. I see those two things as being very closely connected. That connection was also what I was trying to express in the book. I wouldn't say the book is anti-individualistic, but there is a sense that we are all the same person.