A SONG OF STONE was published in 1997
Armed forces roam the lawless land where columns of smoke rise up from the surrounding farms and houses.
The war is ending, has perhaps already ended, but for the castle and its occupants - a young lord and lady - the trouble is just beginning.
Fearing an invasion of soldiers, they take to the road with the other refugees, disguised in rags, but the brutal female lieutenant of an outlaw band of guerrillas has other ideas. Just hours into their escape, the fleeing aristocrats are delivered back to the castle, where, now prisoners in their own home, they become pawns in the lieutenant’s dangerous game of desire, deceit and death.
Iain said, “It’s late 20th century and vaguely North European. It’s set towards the end of a war and there are three central characters, four if you count the castle, which is heavily involved. It’s full of elemental symbolism, either air, earth, fire or water, and each character has an element associated with them. After the relative niceness of Whit, this one is really bleak. It’s the first time I’ve ever gone for a timeless, placeless feel. Like Complicity, it’s deeply horrible. It’s based on a long narrative poem called Feu de Joie that was written about 20 years ago. I had the idea of doing a novel of that poem for a very long time, and that’s what A Song of Stone is. I’ve kept a lot of the poetic language of the original. That was a conscious decision. It’s a counterpoint to the brutality of the story. A hell of a lot has changed, but the basic plot remains the same. There’s some detail, the odd phrase and, sometimes, an entire sentence that is almost identical. In fact they’re basically lifted straight from the poem.”
Italian cover
Judith Woods in The Scotsman (August 1997) writes, ‘Set in the apocalyptic wake of a war, where bands of looters lay waste to what little remains of civilisation, A Song of Stone has been described as Banks’ bleakest work since his riveting, horrific debut The Wasp Factory. It is set in a disturbing world in which everything is as bad as it possibly could be and is in some ways a paean to despair.’
Iain said, “The book was dedicated to my parents because my mum asked for the next book to be dedicated to them; she wasn't too wild about the sex and violence in A Song of Stone, though as I did point out, at least there are no swear words in it.
“I like doing different things and I had never written anything that was deliberately placeless and timeless. I don’t think it is as bleak as the critics have said. It was tragedy, so it should be a cathartic effect. If nothing else, at least you’re still alive when you finish it,” he adds brightly.