“I was never registered. I have no birth certificate, no National Insurance number, nothing to say I’m alive or have ever existed.”

Prepare to enter the incredible world of Frank. Hidden away on a remote island of the Scottish coast, and with a life that seeks to embrace an almost primordial sense of self that is governed by strange and seeming archaic rituals, and seeking through them to control and manipulate the world outside. And above all, there is the biazzare place that is 'The Wasp Factory'.

This is an incredible novel which becomes more intense with every reading as Mr Banks explores mysteries of sex, gender, and the confused space of adolescence, with an incredble range of characters in such a small space including the detached father, the psychotic brother, the almost obligatory dwarven companion, and the inscrutible house-keeper Mrs Clamp, who sees and knows more than she will ever tell. And then there is THAT scene, that every reader remembers, but few will ever bring themselves to describe....