How Late It Was, How Late

Synopsis

A raw, wry vision of human survival in a bureaucratic world, How Late It Was, How Late opens one Sunday morning in Glasgow, Scotland, as Sammy, an ex-convict with a penchant for shoplifting, awakens in a lane and tries to remember the two-day drinking binge that landed him there. Then, things only get worse. Sammy gets in a fight with some soldiers, lands in jail, and discovers that he is completely blind. His girlfriend disappears, the police probe him endlessly, and his stab at Disability Compensation embroils him in the Kafkaesque red tape of the welfare system.

Author Biography

James Kelman was born in Glasgow, Scotland.  His story collections include Greyhound for Breakfast, The Good Times and most recently If it is your life; his novel How Late It Was, How Late won the 1994 Booker Prize;  other novels include Translated Accounts, You Have to be Careful in the Land of the Free and Kieron Smith, Boy.  In 2009 James Kelman was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.