The End of Mr Y is bit of a cracker. That it achieves this read-it-in-a-weekend status in spite of its rather drab prose and cringeworthy dialogue is testament to Scarlett Thomas's innate storytelling skills. However far-fetched this tale of self-abuse, alternative dimensions and, occasionally, self-abuse in alternative dimensions becomes, it remains believable on its own terms and moves along at tremendous pace.

The narrator is Ariel Manto, a PhD student and author of a popular science column in a hip monthly magazine. She had a weird upbringing and likes rough sex and Derrida. The novel opens with her having a fag out her office window at the university just as the block