I, LUCIFER Book

Glen Duncan’s I, Lucifer begins one steamy summer as some heavy negotiations are taking place in Heaven. God has decided to give Lucifer, the furthest-fallen of all fallen angels, a second chance. The Prince of Darkness can return to the fold, provided he manages to last one month on earth without sin. The human form chosen for this celestial experiment? A depressed novelist of little renown, currently contemplating suicide in his Clerkenwell garret.

Lucifer eagerly grasps the opportunity for a holiday on earth, and uses his host’s identity to re-write the story of Creation in a format that has Hollywood moguls kissing his feet. It’s not popular with Him Upstairs, of course, what with the Devil being portrayed as a maverick free-thinker and God as a humourless autocrat. But Lucifer’s having too much fun to care. He’s experiencing the pleasures of the flesh for the first time and everything – the odour of sweaty tube trains, cocaine, ice-cream, dirty sex--delights him. By the time the archangels are dispatched to bring him back, the Lord of all that’s inhumane can’t think of anything he’d rather be than human.

Lucifer befogs his audience, alternately spitting fury at them like some sulphur-charged Dennis Leary and then insisting that he’s a nice guy, just misunderstood. What’s clear, however, is that Glen Duncan is not merely one of those writers who can come up with amusing concepts. He’s a sharp, sometimes savage observer of the human condition, whose talents are as many as the legions of Hell.--Matthew Baylis

A brilliantly written portrait of Lucifer encountering the world of the senses telling his version of the Bible and discovering what it's like to be human - in Clerkenwell. 'Now Your million questions. All in the end resolvable into one: What's it like being me? What for heaven's sake is it like being me? In a nutshell (which thanks to me is the way you like it in these hurrying and fragmented times) it's hard.' Finally the other side of the story. The Prince of Darkness has been given one last chance: he will be readmitted to the company of his fellow angels if he agrees to live out a human life. Highly sceptical (naturally) the Old Deal-maker negotiates a trial period - a summer holiday in a human body with all the delights of the flesh. The body though turns out to be that of Declan Gunn a depressed writer living in Clerkenwell interrupted mid-suicide. Making the best of a bad situation Luce himself takes to writing - to explain to strip back the Biblical spin to help us see the whole thing from his point of view. And to knock that Jesus off his perch. Beset by distractions miscalculations and all the natural shocks that flesh is heir to Lucifer slowly begins to learn what it's like to be us. Glen Duncan's brilliantly written new novel is an investigation of the world of the senses - the seductiveness of evil and the affection which keeps us human.

I, Lucifer : Paperback : Simon & Schuster : 9780743220132 : : 06 Jan 2003 : A stunningly-written portrait of Lucifer encountering the world of the senses, telling his version of the Bible, and discovering what it's like to be human - in Clerkenwell.