One night, after a row with his lover, Neil follows a stranger onto a canal towpath. The stranger turns on him and attacks. He viciously carves up Neil's face, leaving him mutilated -beyond recognition. Neil's recovery, through surgical reconstruction and sexual alienation, forces him to question every value he's ever had, and his attempt to track down his mysterious attacker is a search for his own hidden, destructive self. The Blue Mask is a hardcore emotional trip that explores the trauma of change and the nature of violence and love.

Brought up in Birmingham, England, Joel Lane is a graduate of Cambridge University. He won an Eric Gregory Award for Poetry in 1993. His first novel, From Blue to Black, was published to critical acclaim in 2001.