Gold Machine
A New Statesman Book of the Year, 2021
‘Follow Iain Sinclair into the cloud jungles of Peru and emerge questioning all that seemed so solid and immutable.’ Barry Miles
From the award-winning author of The Last London and Lights Out for the Territory, a journey in the footsteps of our ancestors.
Iain Sinclair and his daughter travel through Peru, guided by – and in reaction to – an ill-fated colonial expedition led by his great-grandfather. The family history of a displaced Scottish highlander fades into the brutal reality of a major land grab. The historic thirst for gold and the establishment of sprawling coffee plantations leave terrible wounds on virgin territory.
In Sinclair’s haunting prose, no place escapes its past, and nor can we.
‘The Gold Machine is a trip, a psychoactive expedition in compelling company.’ TLS
Iain Sinclair is the award-winning writer of numerous critically acclaimed books on London, including The Last London, Lights Out for the Territory, London Orbital and London Overground. He won the Encore Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Downriver. He lives in Hackney, East London.