«Strip the Willow» by John Aberdein

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 as well retreat to Morocco and let GrottoLotto take over the streets for a new global bonanza…? Black political satire meets salty, funny love story. Strip the Willow reveals itself as a dance of vision, desire, plotting and despair. The apocalypse when it comes is pretty damn sharp, the tenderness real. A vivid, breathtaking tale, Strip the Willow is the long-awaited second novel by the author of Saltire award-winning Amande's Bed.