Review:
Sarah Hall is the winner of the Commonwealth Best First Novel award for her debut work Haweswater. In this next work she evokes two contrasting yet still related settings: the Old World of Morecambe Bay and the New one of Coney Island, both homes to the Edwardian amusement industry. Involved in these worlds is Cy Parkes, expert tattooist, the Michelangelo of the book's title. By no means a sheltered only child, fatherless Cy has to graduate from the proverbial school of hard knocks, and in doing so he meets the enigmatic Grace, who asks him to tattoo her entire body with eyes. In her sensuous prose, Hall challenges the reader with her expert knowledge of tattooing and her view of it as body art, while another great attraction of this novel is the number of eccentric characters that parade through the carnival atmosphere she so effortlessly creates. A rich and compelling read.(Kirkus UK)

What the papers say:
"'Here is a writer of show-stopping genius' Guardian; 'Her prose is rich, clear, cold, full of images and immensely sensual.' The Times 'Hall is a writer to indulge, and her sensuous, poetic prose is every bit as evocative as and poured from a pocket at the end of a holiday.' Daily Mail; 'Her gorgeously embellished prose compels the narrative, along with the beguiling vignettes she conjures up... the effect is intoxicating' Financial Times"