Lanark cover art

Lanark

A Life in Four Books

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free + £10 Audible voucher

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

Lanark

By: Alasdair Gray
Narrated by: Alan Cumming, Alasdair Gray, Angus King
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £21.79

Buy Now for £21.79

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. Dystopian Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Satire Science Fiction
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

Praise for the novel: 'Probably the greatest novel of the century . . . It marked the beginning of a new era'
Remarkable . . . Lanark is a work of loving and vivid imagination, yielding copious riches (WILLIAM BOYD)
One of the landmarks of twentieth-century fiction
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)
From a lesser writer, stygian darkness and baroque structure might see off a mass audience and reduce a book to cult status. In Gray's hands, the simple, direct prose found him a wide readership
Lanark, the first novel and arguably the masterpiece of [Gray] gouges a dwelling place in your imagination and leaves it forever altered . . . Knocks the socks off almost everything written on this little island in the past fifty years . . . It increases the scope of fiction's possibilities
All stars
Most relevant
Ive tried to read the book several times before and never quite cracked it but did manage the whole thing as this excellently produced and performed audiobook. It is often lauded as a high point of Scottish culture and there are interesting and apparently innovative aspects and parts to it but the moralising tone and underlying naive student level politics are wearing. Disappointed.

Much Easier to Listen to This Than Read the Book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a wonderful audiobook. The reading is a beautiful rendition that brings this incredible book to life.
Very relevant book for today. ... touched me

wonderful reading of a unique masterpiece

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.