Lanark
A Life in Four Books
Alasdair Gray's first novel, Lanark, is set in Scotland. It was written over a thirty-year span and blends realist and dystopian surrealist views of his hometown of Glasgow.
Gray was dubbed "the best Scottish author since Walter Scott" by Anthony Burgess after its publication in 1981.
Lanark was nominated Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year and earned the inaugural Saltire Society Book of the Year award in 1982. His most well-known work has now become a cult classic. Lanark was hailed as "one of the hallmarks of twentieth-century fiction" by The Guardian in 2008.