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Irvine Welsh NPR coverage of Irvine Welsh: News, author interviews, critics' picks and more.

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Books

Irvine Welsh

Books by Irvine Welsh

A Decent Ride

Marabou Stork Nightmares

Skagboys

Filth

Trainspotting

Dead Men's Trousers

Porno

Irvine Welsh has written books about:

NPR stories about Irvine Welsh

Dead Men's Trousers

Review

Book Reviews

'Dead Men's Trousers' Takes The Trainspotting Crew For A Last, Too-Long Ride

March 1, 2019 • Irvine Welsh catches up with Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud — now middle aged and gone their separate ways — for what he says is the last installment in the Trainspotting saga.

A Decent Ride

Review

Book Reviews

Profane And Pornographic, Irvine Welsh's Latest Plumbs A New Kind Of Emptiness

February 6, 2016 • A Decent Ride brings back many of Welsh's beloved characters with their ribald humor and Scottish vernacular, but now they must address a new challenge: aging.

Skagboys

New In Paperback

June 17-23: 1980s Edinburgh, 1590s Venice And A Study Of Dishonesty

June 17, 2013 • In softcover fiction, Irvine Welsh gives us a prequel to Trainspotting, and Regina O'Melveny tells the story of a 16th-century Renaissance woman. In nonfiction, Dan Ariely discovers what keeps us dishonest.

Skagboys

Author Interviews

'Skagboys': Heroin Highs In 'Trainspotting' Prequel

September 15, 2012 • It's been almost 20 years since Irvine Welsh first introduced Rent, Spud and Sick Boy — a group of gritty characters struggling to survive a grim, heroin-fueled existence in late-1980s Edinburgh. Welsh brings the boys back in his new prequel, Skagboys.

'Skagboys': Heroin Highs In 'Trainspotting' Prequel

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Trapped In A Nightmare: A Sweet, Funny, Brutal Read

Review

You Must Read This

Trapped In A Nightmare: A Sweet, Funny, Brutal Read

November 14, 2011 • The best books don't just get inside a character's psyche, they get in the reader's head, as well. Author Ismet Prcic recommends Irvine Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares, a funny, provocative, cerebral novel that explores the meaning of violence.

Trapped In A Nightmare: A Sweet, Funny, Brutal Read

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Sloane Crosley Finds The Fun In 'Filth'

Review

My Guilty Pleasure

Sloane Crosley Finds The Fun In 'Filth'

December 10, 2010 • Crosley says the novel by Irvine Welsh — also the author of Trainspotting — aces every category of "dirty" we have. Reading it, she explains, is like watching "a rusty car careen into a garbage dump of filthy phonetics and explode into a strangely beautiful ball of flames."