SF Masterwork of the Week: The Body Snatchers

The classic novel of paranoia immortalised on film as The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Originally published in 1955 Jack Finney’s sinister SF tale has outgrown the initial debate about whether it satirized Communism or the conformity of US society at the time, to become a classic of paranoia; an examination of our fear of ‘the other’.

Most people know the story from seeing The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the classic 1978 remake (one of the few Hollwood remakes said to better than the original, made in 1956) starring Donald Sutherland.

Here’s your chance to read the original source; a story that has resonated with readers and viewers for more than 50 years.

The Body Snatchers is available as an SF Masterworks paperback and an SF Gateway eBook.  You can find more of Jack Finney’s work via his Author page on the SF Gateway website and read about him in his entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.