In some ways it's even more relevant today. It increases the scope of fiction's possibilities * * Independent * *Ī phantasmagorical mixture of realism and fantasy * * The List * * Knocks the socks off almost everything written on this little island in the past fifty years. Lanark, the first novel and arguably the masterpiece of gouges a dwelling place in your imagination and leaves it forever altered. In Gray's hands, the simple, direct prose found him a wide readership. Lanark is a work of loving and vivid imagination, yielding copious riches - William Boyd * * Times Literary Supplement * *įrom a lesser writer, stygian darkness and baroque structure might see off a mass audience and reduce a book to cult status. Undoubtedly the best work of fiction written by a Scottish author for decades * * Time Out * * It has changed the landscape - Allan Massie * * The Scotsman * * A saga of a city where reality is about as reliable as a Salvador Dali watch - Brian AldissĪ quite extraordinary achievement, the most remarkable thing in Scottish fiction for a very long time. When dawn comes up and retires in dismay, we find ourselves in the presence of an overpowering surreal imagination. the best Scottish novelist since Sir Walter Scott - Anthony Burgess 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. It was time Scotland produced a shattering work of fiction in the modern idiom. Born in 1934, Alasdair Gray graduated in design and mural painting from the Glasgow School of Art. A work of loving and vivid imagination, yielding copious riches WILLIAM BOYD Lanark, a. 'Probably the greatest novel of the century Observer Remarkable. it marked the beginning of a new era - James Campbell * * Observer * * Buy a cheap copy of Lanark: A Life in Four Books book by Alasdair Gray. Probably the greatest novel of the century. I think it's the best in Scottish literature this century - Iain Banks Born in 1934, Alasdair Graygraduated in design and mural painting from the Glasgow School of Art.

Lanark by Alasdair Gray