‘As good as anything Banks has ever written, if not better’ Sunday Telegraph
After years of exile, Alban Wopuld has been summoned back to his family’s highland estate, Garbadale. The Wopuld clan are closing ranks. They have built their fortune on the boardgame Empire! – which has become a hugely successful computer game – and now the Americans want to buy them out.
As the family gathers for their Extraordinary General Meeting, old grudges, forbidden passions and dark secrets emerge. What drove Alban’s mother to take her own life? And is Alban over Sophie, his bewitching cousin and teenage love?
Praise for Iain Banks:
‘The most imaginative novelist of his generation’ The Times
‘His verve and talent will always be recognised, and his work will always find and enthral new readers’ Ken MacLeod, Guardian
‘His work was mordant, surreal, and fiercely intelligent’ Neil Gaiman
‘An exceptional wordsmith’ Scotsman
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Reviews
Chock-a-block with the author's inimitable quirky magic
A novel that could easily replace The Crow Road as his career highlight
What Banks serves up is both unanticipated and terrifying. The fates of his characters are genuinely affecting
Banks still has the ability to make the reader smile with pleasure
Banks begins his most consistent book since The Crow Road with slight-of-hand tricks displaying the master in rude form... These shifts in voice are so perfect, so clean and witty that when Alban comes to the fore, we feel he's one of us
Compellingly, beautifully crafted... A fascinating read
As good as anything Banks has ever written, if not better