Strip the Willow

Winner of the 2010 Mortgage Investment Trust Book Fiction Award. "A global novel with a local accent. It invites comparison with Flann O'Brien, Jonathan Swift, John Kennedy Toole, Ken Kalfus. Hugh MacDiarmid...would have loved it," – Scotland on Sunday. "You'll be hard pushed to find a more cleverly constructed read this year. Quite superb," - The List. 'Before you could sort a city out, you had to clean up the source.' That is the challenge Lucy faces...For years she made that common mistake: her heart was blocked, she thought she was alone. Now, as predatory LeopCorp gets set to pounce on a bankrupt Uberdeen, her quest for fellow-resisters has to speed up pronto. Feisty Alison? Subtle anarchist Iris? Ruthless young Gwen? The big fisherman with a chip on his deck, the Cretan professor – or the smart anti-capitalist clowns? Perhaps the overcrowded Polish workers – or the wounded haunting stranger that has rolled back into town? Or is Lucy simply past it? Might...