Thin Skin

Essays

By: Jenn Shapland

Narrated by: Jenn Shapland

A GOODREADS MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • Examining capitalism’s toxic creep into the land, our bodies, and our thinking, this incisive new work is “a visceral exploration” (Katherine May, author of Wintering) from a National Book Award finalist and a powerful literary mind.

"A wrenching, loving and trenchant examination of feminism, nuclear weapons production, healthcare, queerness and American life" —Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

For Jenn Shapland, the barrier between herself and the world is porous; she was even diagnosed with extreme dermatologic sensitivity—thin skin.

Recognizing how deeply vulnerable we all are to our surroundings, she becomes aware of the impacts our tiniest choices have on people, places, and species far away. She can't stop seeing the ways we are enmeshed and entangled with everyone else on the planet. Despite our attempts to cordon ourselves off from risk, our boundaries are permeable.

Weaving together historical research, interviews, and her everyday life in New Mexico, Shapland probes the lines between self and work, human and animal, need and desire. She traces the legacies of nuclear weapons development on Native land, unable to let go of her search for contamination until it bleeds out into her own family’s medical history. She questions the toxic myth of white womanhood and the fear of traveling alone that she’s been made to feel since girlhood. And she explores her desire to build a creative life as a queer woman, asking whether such a thing as a meaningful life is possible under capitalism.

Ceaselessly curious, uncompromisingly intelligent, and urgently seeking, with Thin Skin Shapland builds thrillingly on her genre-defying debut My Autobiography of Carson McCullers (“Gorgeous, symphonic, tender, and brilliant” —Carmen Machado), firmly establishing herself as one of the sharpest essayists of her generation.


* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF that contains sources from the book.

Thought provoking essays

This book challenged me to think outside of my comfort zone. That’s a good thing. Heartbreakingly beautiful at times. Kept me up at night.
Author narration is almost always a home run for me since the author knows what tone to use and when.
I have a feeling I will be listening to parts of this book again and again.

Self preoccupied.

Jenn, please, people with uteruses and women are not interchangeable categories. Because trans people. Because people with hysterectomies. And your opinions about who should and shouldn’t have children are only relevant to other white cis women, you have no place telling trans and QTBIPOC people anything about the meaning or impacts of their reproductive choices.