A Gift from Nessus — William McIlvanney

A dark, psychologically compelling story of grift, greed, and a salesman in trouble, from “the finest Scottish novelist of our time” (Telegraph).

Winner of a Scottish Arts Council Book Award

Eddie Cameron is a thirty-five-year-old salesman for Rocklight Ltd., an electrical equipment firm in Glasgow, who feels like he's lived thirty-five years with little to show for it: a job as a salesman at Rocklight, Ltd., an electrical equipment firm in Glasgow; a mortgage; a un-paid-off car that sounds like it has the combustion engine's equivalent of asthma. Who would miss him if he died, beyond his wife, his kids, and his mistress? Only his creditors, he suspects.

But thanks to Eddie's fiddling with the firm's expenses, he may now lose the little that he thought he had. His life is in tatters. His wife hates him. And his violent temper has left his mistress teetering on the edge of sanity…

From a winner of numerous awards for both literary and crime writing, this is a novel with a noir sensibility that explores the darkness we can bring down upon ourselves.

“As a stylist Mr. McIlvanney leaves most of the competition far behind.” -- The New York Times Book Review