Friends and family delve into the secrets of a dying man's past in this literary novel by the award-winning author of The Wasp Factory.

"A goodbye letter to the world and all of its wonder and terror." ?Cory Doctorow, boingboing.net

Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from "highly gifted" at one end, to "nutter" at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother's identity is another matter. Now, though, his father's dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time.

"Uncle" Paul's a media lawyer now; Rob and Ali are upwardly mobile corporate bunnies; pretty, hopeful Pris is a single mother; Haze is still living up to his drug-inspired name twenty years on; and fierce, protective Hol is a gifted if acerbic critic. As young film students they lived at Willoughtree House with Guy, and they've all come back because they want something. Kit, too, has his own ulterior motives. Before his father dies, he wants to know who his mother is, and what's on the mysterious tape they're all looking for. But most of all he wants to stop time and keep his father alive...

Fast paced, gripping and savagely funny, The Quarry is a virtuoso performance whose soaring riffs on the inexhaustible marvel of human perception and rage against the dying of the light will stand among Iain Banks's greatest work.

"This is vintage Banks, full of heart, black comedy, and vitriol, and is sure to delight his fans." ?Sunday Mirror (UK)

"A journey into the dark heart of a disease... This is a novel that's perched at the dangerous edge of things, looking down. It's an urgent novel and an important one." -- The Observer (UK)

"Banks was an extraordinary writer; in straight literary fiction and in his science fiction novels, he engaged the world with passion... For good reason, Banks's many fans will devour this book." ?Library Journal

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• Literature & Fiction

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