Here are 2 books that The False Sister fans have personally recommended if you like
The False Sister.
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I read this extraordinary masterpiece when it was first published in 1981 and I read it again every few years.
In the year it came out I was living in Glasgow which is where it is set. Except that in half of the book the city is transformed into a place called Unthank because Gray gives us two separate but linked narratives.
The novel begins with “Book Three” describing the nightmarish horror of a decaying de-industrialised conurbation called Unthank (meaning “evil thought”) which is seen as a sort of purgatorial afterlife or an insane version of a man’s real life. It is a dreamlike world in which people turn into dragons, hands develop mouths, arms turn into claws and start to savage their owners, time becomes elastic, night and day merge into each other, and people suddenly disappear into holes in the ground.
'Probably the greatest novel of the century' Observer 'Remarkable' William Boyd
Lanark, a modern vision of hell, is set in the disintegrating cities of Unthank and Glasgow, and tells the interwoven stories of Lanark and Duncan Thaw. 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.
First published in 1981, Lanark immediately established Gray as one of Britain's leading writers.
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
This is an absolute gem of an anthology. It's quirky and surprising, with humourous narrative voices wrapped around some genuinely dark shocks. The stories are linked by a theme of teeth being mentioned in each tale, from the prettiness of a smile being the basis of a truly toxic relationship, to food being stuck between teeth forming the key part of a first date. As a writer it was inspiring and joyous to see Joel Shoemaker having such fun with his theme and creating original story after original story.
