After his spectacular and controversial debut, TRAINSPOTTING, Irvine Welsh - the most dangerous new writer in Scotland - follows with an unsettling, shocking and very funny collection of stories. The characters in this extraordinary book are often - on the surface-depraved, vicious, cowardly and manipulative, but their essential humanity is never undermined. Using a range of approaches, from bitter realism to demented fantasy, Irvine Welsh displays a corrosive wit and a telling accuracy of observation, confronting our perception of our own identities and that of those around us.