The Quarry by Iain Banks

The Quarry by Iain Banks

The Quarry is Iain Banks swansong, a novel that in many ways revisits some of Banks' trademark themes (family history, friendship, politics) but approaches them very differently from anything he wrote in the past. The main character and narrator is Kit, a teenager on the autism spectrum. He lives with his dad in a decrepit old house in Northern England. Guy, his father, is in the terminal stages of lung cancer, and Kit looks after him. The novel starts as a bunch of Guy's old friends come over for a weekend. One of Banks' most amazing traits as an author is his ability to make you feel sympathy for even the least likeable characters, and this is in full display here. The apparent McGuffin (a videotape made by this bunch of friends when they were at university that they fear holds embarrassing material) turns out not to be such a McGuffin after all. A deep and moving novel about youth, death, trust and friends.