Lanark: A Life in Four Books was the first novel of Scottish writer Alasdair Gray, and is still his most famous. Written over a period of almost thirty years, it combines realist and dystopian fantasy depictions of his home town of Glasgow. Its publication in 1981 prompted Anthony Burgess to call Gray "the best Scottish novelist since Walter Scott". The book has since won the Saltire Society Book of the Year and David Niven awards, and has become a cult classic.