Set in the disintegrating cities of Unthank and Glasgow, this modern vision of hell tells the interwoven stories of two men: Lanark and Duncan Thaw. As the "Life in Four Books "unfolds, the strange, buried relationship between Lanark and Thaw slowly starts to emerge. "Lanark" is a towering work of the imagination and is the culmination of 25 years of work by Gray, who also illustrated and designed the novel. On its first publication it was immediately recognized as a major work of literature, and drew comparisons with Dante, Blake, Joyce, Orwell, Kafka, Huxley and Lewis Carroll. Thirty years on, its power, majesty, anger and relevance has only intensified.