Quarry - by Iain M Banks (Paperback)

About the Book

Kit doesn't know who his mother is. What he does know, however, is that his father, Guy, is dying of cancer. Feeling his death is imminent, Guy gathers around him his oldest friends - or at least the friends with the most to lose by his death. Paul - the rising star in the Labour party who dreads the day a tape they all made at university might come to light; Alison and Robbie, corporate bunnies whose relationship is daily more fractious; Pris and Haze, once an item, now estranged, and finally Hol - friend, mentor, former lover and the only one who seemed to care. But what will happen to Kit when Guy is gone? And why isn't Kit's mother in the picture? As the friends reunite for Guy's last days, old jealousies, affairs and lies come to light as Kit watches on.

Book Synopsis

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' greatest work.

Review Quotes

"The Quarry is a satisfying end to a fine writing career."--Sunday Express

"The Quarry is an honorable finale to an exciting career."--The Guardian

"The Quarry is...a novel shot through with Banks's trademark humor, political engagement, and hope."--The Times, Book of the Week

"A compelling, raw book. Well-told, like all his books."--Evening Standard

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

"A powerful and affecting book. The Quarry reaches a pitch of emotion that only a reader made of granite could read without tears."--Sunday Herald

"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

"Iain Banks's gift to us over nearly 30 books, a brilliant, piercing depiction of just how funny, stupid, pointless, infuriating, glorious, mind-bending, and inane life can be. And that's why he's been a constant inspiration to me as a novelist and a human being."--Independent on Sunday

"In Banks we had a novelist of supreme subtlety and one who...had an irrepressible sense of fun, that is evident on every page of The Quarry."--The Independent

"It's the testimony of a writer refusing to go quietly, Iain Banks has got the last word."--The Sunday Times

"Remarkable."--The Scotsman

"Some of the funniest writing Banks has ever produced. A writer who has the rare gift of being infallibly entertaining."--The Telegraph

"The book should comfort his fans in many ways, not least the rather hopeful ending and the almost belligerent way in which Guy remains true to his beliefs. Iain Banks may have just missed seeing his last book on the shelves but he can rest safe in the knowledge that what he has bequeathed us is something very fitting for such a stand-out career."--Express (4 Star Review)

"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

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

"With its deadpan teen narrator and stern rural backdrop, it is hard not to find in The Quarry a trace of Banks's enduring debut novel The Wasp Factory and with it the closing of a literary circle... The Quarry is a fitting valediction."--TLS, review

About the Author

Iain Banks came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. Consider Phlebas, his first science fiction novel, was published under the name Iain M. Banks in 1987 and began his celebrated ten-book Culture series. He is acclaimed as one of the most powerful, innovative and exciting writers of his generation.