Cain's Book

Acclaimed worldwide as a high watermark for Scottish literature and lauded by talents as various as William S. Burroughs, Patti Smith and Leonard Cohen, since its original 1960 publication Alexander Trocchi’s notorious Cain’s Book has earned itself a formidable reputation as the cult novel to end them all.

Cain’s Book depicts protagonist Joe Necchi’s experiences from a Glasgow childhood through to adult life in 1950s New York as a scow captain and unrepentant heroin addict. A tour-de-force of poetic writing simultaneously occupying the modes of drug literature confessional, bleak comedy and philosophical tract, the bold and still thoroughly contemporary Cain has lost none of its vivid force and power to astonish.

For this new theatrical adaptation, writer/director Alan McKendrick offers a “fullbore literary arthouse crazyfest” – a live theatre event also incorporating music, film and projected stills, with visuals by Jack Wrigley (85A) and Tobias Feltus.

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