The Quarry
On sale
20th June 2013
Price: £19.99
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.
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.
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Reviews
Banks' handling of big, complex themes is skilful and satisfying, and he concludes on a quietly moving note of compassion
A compelling, raw book
Infallibly entertaining
In Banks we had a novelist of supreme subtlety and one who, in fiction as in life, and for all the concentrated horror of his debut novel, all the epic estrangements of his 'skiffy' (sci-fi), and all the grimness of his final months, had an irrepressible sense of fun that is evident on every page of The Quarry
Banks's relaxed fluency - the direct, funny, unpretentious intelligence of his writing... along with his teeming imagination, made him perhaps Britain's best-loved major contemporary novelist
Shot through with Banks' trademark humour, political engagement and hope
Vintage Banks, full of heart, black comedy and vitriol
This is a novel that's perched at the dangerous edge of things, looking down. It's an urgent novel and an important one
Wonderfully exuberant... written with the life-enhancing verve characteristic of Banks' best work
A quietly incendiary piece of writing, at times heartbreaking, at other times really wonderfully funny... a profoundly humane, funny and smart novel