Sammy wakes up after a drunken blackout to find himself blind, injured, wanted by police and alone in Glasgow. Winner of the Booker Prize, How Late It Was, How Late begins after a lost weekend. Sammy wakes battered, shoeless and missing time. A confrontation with police leaves him beaten, arrested and suddenly blind. Back on the streets of Glasgow, he tries to understand what has happened, where his girlfriend Helen has gone, and how to get through systems designed to wear him down. Medical offices, benefits forms, police pressure and half-remembered dealings close around him, while his voice pushes forward in profane, funny, furious Scots vernacular. James Kelman’s classic is a landmark in literary fiction; social realism with an experimental voice. This remains a passionate, uncompromising song of a book. ‘A passionate, scintillating, brilliant song from a book’ Guardian
