The Wasp Factory: A NovelThe polarizing literary debut by Scottish author Ian Banks, The Wasp Factory is the bizarre, imaginative, disturbing, and darkly comic look into the mind of a child psychopath. Meet Frank Cauldhame. Just sixteen, and unconventional to say the least: Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through. |
Contents
The Sacrifice Poles | 7 |
The Snake Park | 22 |
In the Bunker | 43 |
The Bomb Circle | 62 |
A Bunch of Flowers | 87 |
The Skull Grounds | 104 |
Space Invaders | 110 |
The Wasp Factory | 119 |
What Happened to Eric | 135 |
Running Dog | 147 |
The Prodigal | 158 |
What Happened to Me | 179 |
Other editions - View all
The Wasp Factory: The stunning and controversial literary debut novel Iain Banks Limited preview - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
bike binoculars Blyth breath brother Bunker burning catapult Cauldhame centimetre Clamp cordite couple dead Diggs dogs door drunk dune Eric Eric's Esmerelda eyes face Factory father feel felt fire flame Frank Frankie boy girl glass going grass gulls hand happened hear heard Hello hole IaIN BANKS inside Inverness Courier island Jamie jumped kitchen kite knew light loft looked round lying metres migraine mouth night nodded noise North Sea nylon Old Saul once path Paul petrol plastic Poles rabbit sand screamed sheep Shit shook my head shouted side skull slightly slowly smell smiled Space Invaders stairs staring started stood stopped sure sweat tampons tell things thought told took town trying turned walked wasp Wasp Factory watched wind wiped Yeah