Skagboys - 01 Mark Renton/Trainspotting

Prequel to the best-selling phenomenon Trainspotting , this exhilarating and moving novel shows how Welsh’s colorful miscreants first went wrong.

Mark Renton’s life seems to be on track: university, pretty girlfriend, even social success. But, in this prequel to Trainspotting , after the death of his younger brother, Rent falls apart and starts hanging around with his old pals, including Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie, and being drawn irresistibly into their wacked-out plans.

Set against 1980s Thatcher-era Edinburgh―with its high unemployment, low expectations, and hard-to-come-by money and drugs?Irvine Welsh’s colorful crew lunges from one darkly hilarious misadventure to the next. Gritty, moving, and exhilarating, Skagboys paints their dizzying downward spiral with scabrous humor and raw language.

"The cumulative force of Skagboys is something close to magnificent…An extraordinary piece of work."
― Sam Leith, Financial Times

"Nearly 20 years after Trainspotting , Welsh delivers a stunning prequel that shows how his characters got hooked on heroin…Though Welsh's characters are younger, he is older, and his writing has become even more nuanced…A haunting and important book that deserves serious attention."
― Keir Graff, Booklist

"Careening between boisterous, belligerent, hilarious, and maudlin emotional registers like a drunk at a party, this novel has a dizzy energy."
― Publishers Weekly

"Welsh wants us to know these guys, to feel their humanity…the novel is nothing short of a masterpiece."
― Katie Haegele, Philadelphia Inquirer

Irvine Welsh is the best-selling author of Trainspotting , Ecstasy , Glue , Porno , Filth , Marabou Stork Nightmares , The Acid House , Skagboys , and, most recently, Dead Men's Trousers.