To celebrate Scotland’s day of decision, choose one of these Scottish novels.
Irvine Wesh – Trainspotting -Engaging, hilarious, and profane, riddled with drugs, drunks and bad behaviour and rich with fascinating and flawed characters. The interwoven stories of a group of friends and junkies, it is a dazzling, dislocated trip through the highs and lows of their lives, from wild nights out to terrible nights in
Ian Rankin – Black and Blue – Rebus is juggling four cases trying to nail one killer – who might just lead back to the infamous Bible John. And he’s doing it under the scrutiny of an internal inquiry led by a man he has just accused of taking backhanders from Glasgow’s Mr Big
Christopher Brookmyre – One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night – Gavin’s idea for a unique holiday experience involves a disused North Sea oil platform and facilities that would take your breath away. He invites old school chums along to test it but unfortunately a group of terrorists come along too!
44 Scotland Street – Alexander McCall Smith – Comings and goings at No. 44 Scotland Street, a fictitious building in a real street in Edinburgh. With its multiple-occupancy flats, Scotland Street verges on the Bohemian, where haute bourgeoisie rub shoulders with students and the more colourful members of the intelligentsia
Alasdair Gray – Larnark -A work of extraordinary imagination and wide range. Its playful narrative techniques convey a profound message, both personal and political, about humankind’s inability to love and yet our compulsion to go on trying
The prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark -Miss Brodie is a teacher who exerts a powerful influence over the group of ‘special girls’ at the Marcia Blaine Academy. Each is famous for something & are initiated into a world of adult games & extra-curricular activities they will never forget
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by R L Stevenson – Set in a hellish, fog-bound London, the story of outwardly respectable Dr Jekyll, who unleashes his deepest cruelties and most murderous instincts when he is transformed into the sinister Edward Hyde, is a chilling exploration of humanity’s basest capacity for evil.
The Crow Road – Iain Banks – Prentice McHoan has returned to the bosom of his complex but enduring Scottish family. Relations with his father are strained, his brother is funnier and better-looking than he is, and the woman of his dreams is out of reach
Waverley- Walter Scott – Historical adventure which single handedly started a tourist industry in Scotland
The Drinking Well – Neil Gunn – Iain Cattanach loves to Splay the fiddle and wander the hills tending his father’s sheep. However, his self-sacrificing mother has other plans for him. A position in an Edinburgh legal firm is secured for Iain and he is forced to leave the countryside he loves
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