The Wasp Factory

by Iain Banks

  I look down at Eric again, and smile, nod to myself in the breeze while the waves break and the wind moves spray and grass and a few birds call. I suppose I’ll have to tell him what’s happened to me.

  Poor Eric came home to see his brother, only to find (Zap! Pow! Dams burst! Bombs go off! Wasps fry: ttssss!) he’s got a sister.

  IAIN BANKS came to widespread and controversial public notice with the original publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, recently selected in a British poll as one of the top 100 novels of the century. Since then he has gained enormous popular and critical acclaim with further works of fiction and, as Iain M. Banks, science fiction. He lives in Scotland.

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  Also by Iain Banks

  WALKING ON GLASS

  THE BRIDGE

  ESPEDAIR STREET

  CANAL DREAMS

  THE CROW ROAD

  COMPLICITY

  WHIT

  Also by Iain M. Banks

  CONSIDER PHILEBAS

  THE PLAYER OF GAMES

  USE OF WEAPONS

  THE STATE OF THE ART

  AGAINST A DARK BACKGROUND

  FEERSUM ENDJINN

  EXCESSION

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 1984 by Iain Banks

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  First paperback edition 1998

  First published in Great Britain by Macmillan London Limited Published by arrangement with Little, Brown & Co. (UK) Ltd.

  SIMON & SCHUSTER PAPERBACKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Cover design by Eric Fuentecilla

  Cover photographs by Amy Guip

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Banks, Iain.

  The wasp factory: a novel / Iain Banks.

  p. cm.

  1. Fathers and sons—Scotland—Fiction. 2. Serial murders—Scotland—Fiction 3. Teenage boys—Scotland—Fiction. 4. Psychopaths—Scotland—Fiction. 5. Murderers—Scotland—Fiction. I. Title.

  PR6052.A485W3 1998b

  823'.914—dc21 98-8355

  CIP

  ISBN-13: 978-0-684-85315-4

  ISBN-10: 0-684-85315-9

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4767-5024-8 (eBook)