"A tale of demonic possession, it is also a caustic comedy . . . The result is teasingly brilliant and prefigures some of postmodernism's best trickery" (The Guardian).

It is Scotland in the early eighteenth century. Fear and superstition grip the land. Robert Wringhim, a boy of strict Calvinist upbringing, is corrupted by a shadowy figure who calls himself Gil-Martin. Under his influence, Robert commits a series of murders which he regards as "justified" by God under the tenets of his faith.

Hogg's masterpiece is a brilliant portrayal of the power of evil and a scathing critique of organized religion. Superbly crafted and deftly executed, it resists any easy explanation of events: is this stranger a figment of Robert's imagination or the devil himself?

With a new introduction by Ian Rankin.

"One of the great works on that sinister border between the supernatural and the psychological." —Philip Pullman, bestselling author of His Dark Materials

"Impresses as a piece of psychological realism . . . An entertaining ride with the devil." —The Guardian

"A work so moving, so funny, so impassioned, so exact and so mysterious, that its long history of neglect came as a surprise which has yet to lose its resonance." —Times Literary Supplement

"A strange, disturbing obsession of a book, and a key text of Scottish literature." —James Robertson, award-winning author of The Professor of Truth