Filth

By (author) Welsh Irvine
Short description/annotation:
With the festive season almost upon him, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson is winding down at work and gearing up socially - kicking off Christmas with a week of sex and drugs in Amsterdam.
Description:
With the festive season almost upon him, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson is winding down at work and gearing up socially - kicking off Christmas with a week of sex and drugs in Amsterdam. There are irritating flies in the ointment, though, including a missing wife, a nagging cocaine habit, a dramatic deterioration in his genital health, a string of increasingly demanding extra-marital affairs. The last thing he needs is a messy murder to solve. Still it will mean plenty of overtime, a chance to stitch up some colleagues and finally clinch the promotion he craves. But as Bruce spirals through the lower reaches of degradation and evil, he encounters opposition - in the form of truth and ethical conscience - from the most unexpected quarter of all: his anus. In Bruce Robertson, Welsh has created one of the most corrupt, misanthropic characters in contemporary fiction , and has written a dark, disturbing and very funny novel about sleaze, power, and the abuse of everything. At last, a novel that lives up to its name.
Review quote:
Welsh firing on all cylinders... The best thing he has done since Trainspotting
Review quote:
It is surely a remarkable cultural moment when a reviewer is offered cash in a bar for an advance copy of a literary novel... Filth is a masterpiece...squarely in the classic line of classic scottish writing
Review quote:
Things are going well for Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson. Promotion is in the offing, he''s got all the booze and drugs he needs, and his various plots aimed at friends and colleagues seem to be working out. Robertson, compulsive and repulsive by turns, has only two problems. One is a case of racially-motivated murder on his patch. The other is that there''s a nasty tapeworm in his gut and it seems intent on having its say... A brutally sustained achievement
Review quote:
We''re used to tough cops with non-PC attitudes, but Welsh trumps the lot with his evil-scheming, ball-scratching, foul-mouthed hero-with-haemorrhoids... Welsh''s jet-black comedy at once entertains and appals... Gloriously grotesque
Review quote:
A snarling epic of a book...ugly, devastatingly funny, unremittingly nasty and pulls no punches... Don''t dare miss it
Biographical note:
Irvine Welsh was born and raised in Edinburgh. His first novel, Trainspotting, has sold over one million copies in the UK and was adapted into an era-defining film. He has written fifteen further novels, including the Sunday Times bestseller Men in Love and the Crime series, four books of shorter fiction and numerous plays and screenplays. Irvine Welsh currently lives between London, Edinburgh and Miami.
Promotional headline:
Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson wants to wind down to Christmas with a week of sex and drugs in Amsterdam. The last thing he needs is a messy murder to solve.