Grey Area was published by Bloomsbury in 1994 and consolidated Self’s reputation as the most inventive and disturbing short story writer working in Britain. The collection includes stories that had already appeared in magazines and established Self’s characteristic mode: fantastical premises executed with documentary realism, drug-culture satire, bodily horror played straight, and prose of such density and precision that even the most outlandish scenarios feel lived-in.
The title story concerns a man who discovers he can physically enter other people’s grey matter — their brains — and explores them as landscapes. “The North London Book of the Dead” (originally published in The Quantity Theory of Insanity but here reprinted in revised form) follows a bereaved man who discovers his dead mother is living in Crouch End, carrying on much as before. “Inclusion®” imagines a pharmaceutical that allows you to experience other people’s consciousnesses. Each story takes a single conceptual conceit and follows it to its logical (and usually grim) conclusion.
Self’s London in these stories is recognizable — the geography is precise, the social detail accurate — but slightly warped, as if viewed through a lens that reveals hidden architectures of power, addiction, and desire beneath the quotidian surface.
Collecting Grey Area
First edition (Bloomsbury, London, 1994): Trade paperback original with illustrated card covers.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $15–$40
- Very good: $8–$20