by Philip Roth
First published 1972
College professor David Kepesh wakes up one morning to find he has been transformed into a 155-pound female breast. Bewildered and ashamed, he struggles to rationalize his condition, desperate to prove he is insane. As he grapples with his bizarre new reality, Kepesh is forced to confront his deepest fears and desires, challenging the very foundations of his identity. In this darkly comedic tale, Roth explores the limits of the human form and the power of the physical self to reshape one's existence.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, academic
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, identity-crisis
Setting: United States
Period: 20th-century
Paperback · Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Content warnings: body-horror