This year’s Bad Sex in Fiction Prize winner is Rowan Somerville (or possibly Summerville) for The Shape of Her. This novel sounds like the premise for a soft-porn film: two passionate young lovers vacationing on a Greek island. But the taut nubile bodies romping in an idyllic setting don’t seem to be having much fun, at least not from the excerpts I’ve read. (The book isn’t available in the US yet.) At one point their lovemaking is described in this anti-erotic fashion:“a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her.”

I’ll keep the insects out of my bed, thanks. I prefer to be responsible for performing any biting or stinging activities, not to mention piercing anything with a needle.