Hailed as Banks' best novel since The Crow Road, The Steep Approach to Garbadale is his first new novel in five years. Centred on the Wopuld family and their many skeletons in the closet, this is a tale of love, deceit and dark desires. There are some very interesting twists and despite the description about the family gaming business, the emphasis is firmly on the love story between Alban and his cousin Sophie. Well worth curling up with on a rainy day(or any other day for that matter).
Read by Peter Kenny Unabridged on 11 CDs Running time approx 14 hours.
Dark family secrets and a long-lost love affair lie at the heart of Iain Banks's fabulous new novel. The Wopuld family built its fortune on a board game called Empire! - now a hugely successful computer game. So successful, the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the firm out. Young renegade Alban, who has been evading the family clutches for years, is run to ground and persuded to attend the forthcoming family gathering - part birthday party, part Extraordinary General Meeting - convened by Win, Wopuld matriarch and most powerful member of the board, at Garbadale, the family's highland castle. Being drawn back into the bosom of the clan brings a disconcerting confrontation with Alban's past. What drove his mother to take her own life? And is he ready to see Sophie, his beautiful cousin and teenage love? Grandmother Win's revelations wll radically alter Alban's perspective for ever.
'There are so many larger-than-life characters in this wonderful novel … As good as anything Iain Banks has ever written, if not better. It is the story of one young man's getting of wisdom, an oblique but observant history of Britain from the 1980s to the present day, and a great game of consequences' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
‘The most imaginative novelist of his generation…an exceptional talent’ THE TIMES
Author
About Iain Banks
Iain Banks came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, THE WASP FACTORY, in 1984. He has since gained enormous popular and critical acclaim for both his mainstream and his science fiction novels (which are published under the name Iain M Banks).
