The Acid House

This scintillating, disturbing, and altogether outrageous collection of stories introduces to these shores a young writer already being called "the Scottish Celine of the 1990s" ( "Guardian" ) and "a mad, postmodern Roald Dahl" ( "Weekend Scotsman" ). Using a range of approaches from bitter realism to demented fantasy, Irvine Welsh is about to evoke the essential humanity, well hidden as it is, of his generally depraved, lazy, manipulative, and vicious characters. He specializes particularly in cosmic reversals - God turns a hapless footballer into a fly; an acid head and a newborn infant exchange consciousnesses with sardonically unexpected results - always displaying a corrosive wit and a telling accuracy of language and detail. Irvine Welsh is one hilariously dangerous writer and he is bound to create a sensation.