'Probably the greatest novel of the century' Observer
'Remarkable . . . A work of loving and vivid imagination, yielding copious riches' WILLIAM BOYD
Lanark, a modern vision of hell, is set in the disintegrating cities of Unthank and Glasgow, and tells the interwoven stories of Lanark and Duncan Thaw. A work of extraordinary imagination and wide range, its playful narrative techniques convey a profound message, both personal and political, about humankind's inability to love, and yet our compulsion to go on trying.
First published in 1981, Lanark immediately established Gray as one of Britain's leading writers.
Born in 1934, Alasdair Gray graduated in design and mural painting from the Glasgow School of Art. Since 1981, when Lanark was published by Canongate, he authored, designed and illustrated seven novels, several books of short stories, a collection of his stage, radio and TV plays and a book of his visual art, A Life in Pictures.In November 2019, he received a Lifetime Achievement award by the Saltire Society.He died in December 2019, aged eighty-five.
Debut novels are often intimate in theme, small in scope, and under-read. When big, sprawling books seem to drop from nowhere, they usually boast, on a closer look, a small backlog of underappreciated siblings. Not so with these five knockout debuts, which span genres, readerships, countries, and eras—or, in one case, do none of these […]
