Six top books about dark journeys

Iain Sinclair is the author of many books, including Downriver, Lights Out for the Territory, London Orbital, Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire, and Ghost Milk: Recent Adventures Among the Future Ruins of London on the Eve of the Olympics.

For The Week magazine, he named his six favorite books about dark journeys, including:

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry

A compulsively readable account of an alcohol-fueled hallucination in an alien landscape — a reckless danse macabre through the Mexican Day of the Dead. The physical struggle to shape a literary masterpiece from years of abortive travel informs every hard-won sentence.

Read about the other books on the list.

Under the Volcano is one of Iain Gately's five best books on the pleasures and hazards of drink.

Also see Iain Sinclair's list of five novels that capture the spirit and rich history of London.

--Marshal Zeringue