Skios is a 2012 comic novel by Michael Frayn. The novel was published in May 2012 by Faber & Faber in the UK and by Metropolitan Books the following month in the US. It centres on a group of individuals on the fictional Greek island of Skios.
Tom Sharpe wrote brilliant farces, David lodge writes campus novels, here frayn mixes them up and sets the result on a Greek Island. Very competent and readable , but light holiday matter.
Skios is a bit of a light entertainment for the Booker long list. I'd have read this as a palate cleanser between the potential award winners. That's not to say it isn't well-written, however. There are great comic bits and, for the most part, Frayn is consistent and keeps a good pace. The book falters a bit when it pulls back to a macro view of events, but when it's focused on character interaction the pitch is just right.
I may forget this whole novel in a month, but if Frayn writes of Oliver Fox again, I'm likely to pick it up.
