A reissue of the outstanding contemporary Glasgow novel for which Welsh won the Saltire First Book of The Year Award and the Crime Writers' Association Creasey Dagger, was chosen as one of Britain's Best First Novelists by the Guardian, and was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction Rilke is eccentric, witty, and frequently outrageous. An auctioneer by profession, he is an acknowledged expert in antiques but also considers himself something of an expert in many other fields. When he comes upon a hidden collection of graphically violent erotic photographs, he feels compelled to unearth more about the deceased owner who coveted them. What follows is a compulsive journey of discovery, decadence, and deviousness, steered in part by Rilke's gay promiscuity and inquisitive nature.
