Lanark: a life in four books, paperback/alasdair gray

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 humankinds inability to love, and yet our compulsion to go on trying.

First published in 1981, Lanark immediately established Gray as one of Britains leading writers.