thecrowroad-liveinternet（256页）.docVIP

THE CROW ROAD Iain Banks ABACUSAn Abacus Book First published in Great Britain by Scribners This edition published by Abacus 1993 Reprinted 1993 (twice), 1994, 1995 (twice), 1996 (three times), 1997 (three times), 1998 Copyright ? 1992 Iain Banks The right of Iain Banks to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All characters in this publication are ficticious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Typeset by Leaper Gard Ltd, Bristol Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc Abacus A Division of Little, Brown and Company (UK) Brettenham House Lancaster Place London WC2E 7EN Again, for Ann, And with thanks to: James Hale, Mic Cheetham, Andy Watson And Steve Hatton CHAPTER 1 It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bachs Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach. I looked at my father, sitting two rows away in the front line of seats in the cold, echoing chapel. His broad, greying-brown head was massive above his tweed jacket (a black arm-band was his concession to the solemnity of the occasion). His ears were moving in a slow, oscillatory manner, rather in the way John Waynes shoulders moved when he walked; my father was grinding his teeth. Probably he was annoyed that my grandmother had