A vicious fifteen-year-old "droog" is the central character of this 1963 classic, whose stark terror was captured in Stanley Kubrick's magnificent film of the same title.

In Anthony Burgess's nightmare vision of the future, where criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. When the state undertakes to reform Alex—to "redeem" him—the novel asks, "At what cost?"

If you like geo-political fiction A Clockwork Orange has all the characteristics to become one of your favourite stories. The language is immediate and surprisingly effective in describing the life and thoughts of the main character, but you will soon realize that the sometime grotesque picture of the society that transpires from his vision is dangerously close to our own world. As the story evolves we begin to feel sorry and even sympathetic for our young hero because in making the world he fights in possible we have created the conditions for him grow wild and develop those defence mechanisms that will bring some much pain and grief to his victims. In the end he will prove to be the major victim of that society and to have a soul not incapable of redemption. Whatever your take away from the story will be, A Clockwork Orange is a masterful narration of our failure as a society that will remain a classic to enjoy and perhaps study for centuries to come.