Speaking Skin

Author: Sabine Huynh

Translator: Charlotte Mandell

Publisher: Black Square Editions (2025)

The dense texts in Speaking Skin—small squares, like beds, or jewel caskets—explore the intimacy of language: the book begins with the narrator having lost her voice, her language, as well as her connection to her own body; gradually she rediscovers language through touch, through physical connection with the other, who speaks a different language; the two languages/tongues intermingle and form an entirely new tongue of intimacy and awareness. “There are doors under the skin” which language opens: new words are born, language and thought become one, skin learns finally to speak.