ABSTRACT
In 2002, Hanif Kureishi published his latest volume of stories, The Body. In this collection, stories about families abound – father and son, son and mother are depicted in their difficult yet rewarding interactions. The issue of ethnicity appears on the margins of the stories. Yet, the eponymous short novel ‘The Body’ deals with the very absence of these family ties. There, Adam, the first-person narrator, a married, ailing writer in his mid-sixties, has his brain transplanted into the body of a handsome 25-year-old male. The body shift is intended to be temporary. Adam plans for a six-month vacation, but the story closes when a return to his old body has become impossible.
