Lanark

A Life in Four Books

By: Alasdair Gray, William Boyd - introduction

Narrated by: Alan Cumming, Alasdair Gray, Angus King

FOR THE FIRST TIME UNABRIDGED IN AUDIO

READ BY ALAN CUMMING and ANGUS KING
WITH ARCHIVAL RECORDINGS FROM ALASDAIR GRAY HIMSELF

'Probably the greatest novel of the century' Observer

Lanark, a modern vision of hell set in the disintegrating cities of Unthank and Glasgow, tells the interwoven stories of Lanark and Duncan Thaw. A work of extraordinary imagination, its playful narrative conveys 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 established Alasdair Gray as one of Britain’s leading writers and kick-started the modern renaissance of Scottish literature.

Critic reviews

"'Probably the greatest novel of the century . . . It marked the beginning of a new era'"

"One of the landmarks of twentieth-century fiction"

"A necessary genius" (ALI SMITH)

"Remarkable . . . Lanark is a work of loving and vivid imagination, yielding copious riches" (WILLIAM BOYD)

"[Gray will] be remembered best for the masterpiece that is Lanark, but everything he wrote reflected his brilliance" (NICOLA STURGEON)

"A book credited with kick-starting Scotland's literary renaissance"

"I was absolutely knocked out by Lanark. I think it's the best in Scottish literature this century" (IAIN BANKS)

"At times exuberant, at times despairing, always vivid . . . Urban and wholly contemporary, yet suffused with the past . . . Lanark , in common with all great books, is still, and always will be, an act of resistance" (Janice Galloway)

"This extraordinary masterpiece . . . is profoundly perceptive about the ways in which our society is destroying itself. Yet it manages to be funny and is written in a beautifully lucid prose"

"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)