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Lanark by Alasdair Gray

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Love Lanark but not sure what to read next?

These picks are popular with readers who enjoyed this book. Complete a quick Shelf Talk to get recommendations made just for you! Warning: possible spoilers for Lanark below.

In Lanark, did you enjoy ...

... fragmented timelines and non-chronological storytelling?

The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa

If you were intrigued by the way Lanark fractures its narrative—shifting between the dystopian Unthank and realistic Glasgow, playing with time and sequence—then you'll be mesmerized by The Book of Disquiet. Pessoa's masterpiece is a collage of dreams, diary entries, and philosophical musings, refusing linear order and offering a dreamlike immersion into the inner life of its narrator.

... stories that are aware of themselves as stories?

If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino

If you loved how Lanark broke the fourth wall—Gray's famous 'Epilogue' in the middle of the novel, or his playful footnotes and self-insertions—you'll be delighted by If on a winter's night a traveler. Calvino crafts a dizzying, metafictional labyrinth where you—the reader—are the protagonist, and every chapter reinvents what a novel can be. It's witty, surprising, and utterly original.

... multi-layered plots with mysterious conspiracies and interwoven realities?

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

If you enjoyed the dense, interlocking plots and allegories in Lanark—the way the personal and political blur, or how Gray weaves in mysterious institutions—then The Crying of Lot 49 is for you. Pynchon's novella follows Oedipa Maas as she uncovers a shadowy underground postal system, blending paranoia, satire, and cultural critique into a delightfully tangled narrative.

... surreal worlds rich with symbolism and allegory?

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien

If the surreal, nightmarish landscapes and symbolic depth of Unthank in Lanark fascinated you, The Third Policeman will feel like a homecoming. O'Brien’s novel is a darkly comic, philosophical journey through a bizarre otherworld, where bicycles and logic defy meaning, and every detail pulses with allegorical significance.

... philosophical explorations of identity, reality, and the limits of understanding?

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

If you found yourself drawn to Lanark's probing questions about existence, reality, and selfhood—especially through Thaw’s struggles—then Solaris is a profound next read. Lem’s classic delves into humanity’s attempts to comprehend an utterly alien intelligence, raising philosophical puzzles about perception, memory, and the impossibility of true understanding.

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