Descriere
'Probably the greatest novel of the century' Observer
'Remarkable . . . A work of loving and vivid imagination, yielding copious riches' WILLIAM BOYD
Set in the disintegrating cities of Unthank and Glasgow, this modern vision of hell tells the interwoven stories of two men: Lanark and Duncan Thaw. As the Life in Four Books unfolds, the strange, buried relationship between Lanark and Thaw slowly starts to emerge.
Lanark is a towering work of the imagination and is the culmination of twenty-five years of work by Gray, who also illustrated and designed the novel. On its first publication it was immediately recognised as a major work of literature, and drew comparisons with Dante, Blake, Joyce, Orwell, Kafka, Huxley and Lewis Carroll. Thirty years on, its power, majesty, anger and relevance has only intensified.
"I was absolutely knocked out by Lanark. I think it's the best in Scottish literature this century" (Iain Banks)
"Probably the greatest novel of the century . . . it marked the beginning of a new era" (James Campbell Observer)
"It was time Scotland produced a shattering work of fiction in the modern idiom. This is it . . . [Gray is] the best Scottish novelist since Sir Walter Scott" (Anthony Burgess)
"When dawn comes up and retires in dismay, we find ourselves in the presence of an overpowering surreal imagination. A saga of a city where reality is about as reliable as a Salvador Dali watch" (Brian Aldiss)
"A quite extraordinary achievement, the most remarkable thing in Scottish fiction for a very long time. It has changed the landscape" (Allan Massie The Scotsman)
"Undoubtedly the best work of fiction written by a Scottish author for decades" (Time Out)
"Remarkable. . . Lanark is a work of loving and vivid imagination, yielding copious riches" (William Boyd Times Literary Supplement)
"From a lesser writer, stygian darkness and baroque structure might see off a mass audience and reduce a book to cult status. In Gray's hands, the simple, direct prose found him a wide readership." (The Times) --The Times
"A phantasmagorical mixture of realism and fantasy" (The List) --The List
"In some ways it's even more relevant today. It's such an elaborate work of both fantasy and political satire, a sort of Gulliver's Travels for 20th Century Scotland" (Scotland on Sunday) --Scotland on Sunday
