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Recommendations based on Skagboysby Irvine Welsh
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Glue
by Irvine Welsh
A gritty portrait of characters struggling with poverty, addiction, and violent crime in Edinburgh.
Glue is the story of four boys growing up in the Edinburgh schemes, and about the loyalties, the experiences - and the secrets - that hold them together into their thirties. Four boys becoming men: ... (Goodreads)
Marabou Stork Nightmares
by Irvine Welsh
A young man struggles to make sense of the chaotic world around him.
Roy Strang narrates the book from an (at first) unexplained coma, which he has been in for the previous two years. His life in this state is a miserable affair, surrounded by uncaring doctors and his ... (Wikipedia)
Filth
by Irvine Welsh
A darkly humorous story of a degenerate cop's descent into drug-fueled chaos.
Bruce Robertson is a detective sergeant serving in Edinburgh 's " Lothian Constabulary ". Robertson is a Machiavellian, intensely misanthropic man who spends his time indulging in cocaine and alcohol ... (Wikipedia)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
by Hunter S. Thompson
A wild and hallucinatory journey through the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas.
The basic synopsis revolves around journalist Raoul Duke ( Hunter S. Thompson ) and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo ( Oscar Zeta Acosta ), as they arrive in Las Vegas in 1971 to report on the Mint 400 ... (Wikipedia)
Requiem for a Dream
by Hubert Selby Jr.
A tale of four characters and their struggles with addiction, leading to a devastating climax.
This story follows the lives of Sara Goldfarb, her son Harry, his girlfriend Marion Silver, and his best friend Tyrone C. Love, who are all searching for the key to their dreams in their own ways. In ... (Wikipedia)
The Wasp Factory
by Iain Banks
A disturbed teenage boy discovers startling truths about his family and himself.
The story is told from the perspective of 16-year-old Frank Cauldhame. Frank lives with his father on a small island in rural Scotland , and he has not seen his mother in many years. There is no ... (Wikipedia)
Last Exit to Brooklyn
by Hubert Selby Jr.
A gritty, dark exploration of post-WWII life in Brooklyn and its inhabitants.
Few novels have caused as much debate as Hubert Selby Jr.'s notorious masterpiece, Last Exit to Brooklyn, and this Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Irvine Welsh, author of ... (Goodreads)
The Drawing of the Three
by Stephen King
A man's battle for survival and acceptance in a dangerous and strange world.
The book begins less than seven hours after the end of, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, after The Man in Black has described The Gunslinger's fate using tarot cards . , Roland wakes up on a beach, ... (Wikipedia)
Full Dark, No Stars
by Stephen King
Four suspenseful stories of retribution, exploring the depths of human darkness.
"I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger..." writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up "1922." the first in this pitch-black quartet ... (Goodreads)
American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis
A corporate psychopath's descent into homicidal madness, exposing the dark side of 1980s New York.
Set in Manhattan during the Wall Street boom of the late 1980s, American Psycho follows the life of wealthy young investment banker Patrick Bateman. Bateman, in his mid-20s when the story begins, ... (Wikipedia)
The Virgin Suicides
by Jeffrey Eugenides
A dark and mysterious tale about the mysterious suicides of five teenage sisters in a suburban town.
As an ambulance arrives for the body of Cecilia Lisbon, a group of anonymous adolescent neighborhood boys recalls the events leading up to her death. The Lisbons are a Catholic family living in the ... (Wikipedia)
1Q84
by Haruki Murakami
A surreal journey of two people entangled in a mysterious dual-world conspiracy.
The events of 1Q84 take place in Tokyo during a fictionalized year of 1984, with the first volume set between April and June, the second between July and September, and the third between October and ... (Wikipedia)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
by Milan Kundera
A story of love and loss in a politically turbulent Czechoslovakia.
In The Unbearable Lightness of Being , Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and ... (Goodreads)
V for Vendetta
by Alan Moore
A dystopian future, where a mysterious vigilante fights for freedom and justice.
On Guy Fawkes Night in London in 1997, a young girl goes to see her boss after curfew when she is sexually attacked by three men who are actually members of the state secret police , called "The ... (Wikipedia)
Life or Death
by Michael Robotham
A man escapes prison on the eve of his release, risking everything to prove his innocence and find his missing daughter.
Audie Palmer escapes from a Texas jail the day before the end of his ten-year sentence for armed robbery and second-degree murder. His friend Moss Webster is mysteriously released from the same ... (Wikipedia)
Hey Nostradamus!
by Douglas Coupland
Four narrators recount the aftermath of a high school shooting and how it affects their lives and faith.
Pregnant and secretly married, Cheryl Anway scribbles what becomes her last will and testament on a school binder shortly before a rampaging trio of misfit classmates gun her down in a high school ... (Goodreads)
The Financial Lives of the Poets
by Jess Walter
A struggling poet turns to selling marijuana to save his family from financial ruin.
The Financial Lives of the Poets is a comic and heartfelt novel from National Book Award nominee Jess Walter, author of Citizen Vince and The Zero , about how we get to the edge of ruin—and how we ... (Goodreads)
The Gods of War
by Conn Iggulden
Epic historical fiction of a brave warrior's struggles against the odds in a tumultuous world.
The year is 53 B.C. Fresh from victory in Gaul, Julius Caesar leads battle-hardened legions across the Rubicon river–threatening Rome herself. Even the master strategist Pompey is caught unprepared ... (Goodreads)
Invisible Monsters
by Chuck Palahniuk
A woman's journey to re-establish her identity and find her place in the world.
The narrator of the story is an unnamed disfigured woman who goes by multiple pseudonyms, notably Daisy St. Patience and Bubba Joan—identities given to her by Brandy Alexander, with whom she spends ... (Wikipedia)
The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway
A group of expatriates in 1920s Europe, struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of WWI.
On the surface, the novel is a love story between the protagonist Jake Barnes—a man whose war wound has made him unable to have sex—and the promiscuous divorcée usually identified as Lady Brett ... (Wikipedia)
Animal Farm / 1984
by George Orwell
Two classic dystopian novels that explore the dangers of totalitarianism and the corrupting influence of power.
The poorly-run Manor Farm near Willingdon , England , is ripened for rebellion from its animal populace by neglect at the hands of the irresponsible and alcoholic farmer, Mr. Jones . One night, the ... (Wikipedia)
Blood of Elves
by Andrzej Sapkowski
A young orphan embarks on a quest, struggling to accept their destiny as a Witcher.
About a year before the beginning of the novel (as chronicled in the preceding short story " Much More "), the Empire of Nilfgaard attacks the Kingdom of Cintra. Queen Calanthe, mortally wounded, ... (Wikipedia)
Kristin Lavransdatter
by Sigrid Undset
The epic saga of a woman's struggles and triumphs in medieval Norway.
The cycle follows the life of Kristin Lavransdatter, a fictitious Norwegian woman living in the 14th century. Kristin grows up in Sel in the Gudbrand Valley , the daughter of a well-respected and ... (Wikipedia)
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
by Haruki Murakami
A man's journey of self-reflection to address his past and understand his place in the world.
A mesmerising mystery story about friendship from the internationally bestselling author of, Norwegian Wood, and, 1Q84, Tsukuru Tazaki had four best friends at school. By chance all of their names ... (Goodreads)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
A single day in a Soviet prison camp, detailing the hardships and struggle of the inmates.
Ivan Denisovich Shukhov has been sentenced to a camp in the Soviet gulag system. He was accused of becoming a spy after being captured briefly by the Germans as a prisoner of war during World War II ... (Wikipedia)
The Overstory
by Richard Powers
Nine strangers are brought together by their love for trees, leading to a fight to save the last of the remaining forests.
Nicholas Hoel, Mimi Ma, Adam Appich, Ray Brinkman, Dorothy Cazaly, Douglas Pavlicek, Neelay Mehta, Patricia Westerford, and Olivia Vandergriff are people who had unique relationships with trees which ... (Wikipedia)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
by Ian Fleming
James Bond's mission to stop a criminal mastermind, complete with espionage, gadgets and action.
For more than a year, James Bond, British Secret Service operative 007, has been involved in "Operation Bedlam": trailing the private criminal organisation SPECTRE and its leader, Ernst Stavro ... (Wikipedia)
Hot Water Music
by Charles Bukowski
A collection of Bukowski's works exploring themes of love, death, and the human experience.
With his characteristic raw and minimalist style, Charles Bukowski takes us on a walk through his side of town in, Hot Water Music,. He gives us little vignettes of depravity and lasciviousness, bite ... (Goodreads)
The Crow Road
by Iain Banks
A young man's journey of self-discovery and family secrets, set in Scotland.
This Bildungsroman is set in the fictional Argyll town of Gallanach (by its description, reminiscent of Oban but on the north east shore of Loch Crinan ), the real village of Lochgair , and in ... (Wikipedia)
