Iain Banks' THE QUARRY is Released 11 Days After Author's Death

The Quarry is Iain Banks' final novel, which was released today, only 11 days after the author's death. The novel deals with a youth, Kit, and his father, Guy, a misanthrope who is dying of cancer.

The author, who died on June 9, 2013, was himself in the advanced phases of terminal gall bladder cancer at the time the book was being prepared for publication, although he did not discover this until the book was almost finished. The novel is said to draw from Banks's own experiences on this topic. The dates of publication of The Quarry were brought forward at Banks's request,[2] and are to be 20 June 2013 in the UK and 25 June 2013 in the US.

Iain [Menzies] Banks was born in Fife in 1954, and was educated at Stirling University, where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology.

Banks came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984.

His first science fiction novel, Consider Phlebas, was published in 1987. He has continued to write both mainstream fiction (as Iain Banks) and science fiction (as Iain M. Banks).

He is now acclaimed as one of the most powerful, innovative and exciting writers of his generation: The Guardian has called him "the standard by which the rest of SF is judged". William Gibson, the New York Times-bestselling author of Spook Country describes Banks as a "phenomenon".