The Quarry

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What to expect

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.

Critics Review

Shot through with Banks' trademark humour, political engagement and hope
The Times
A quietly incendiary piece of writing, at times heartbreaking, at other times really wonderfully funny... a profoundly humane, funny and smart novel
Independent
Wonderfully exuberant... written with the life-enhancing verve characteristic of Banks' best work
Scotsman
Infallibly entertaining
Telegraph
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
Independent
This is a novel that's perched at the dangerous edge of things, looking down. It's an urgent novel and an important one
Observer
Vintage Banks, full of heart, black comedy and vitriol
Mirror
A compelling, raw book
Evening Standard
Banks' handling of big, complex themes is skilful and satisfying, and he concludes on a quietly moving note of compassion
The List
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
Guardian

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