After the critical success of his first novel,  <i>Morvern Callar,</i> Alan Warner has written an extraordinary, stirring sequel to Morvern's odyssey, confirming him as one of the most original, uniquely gifted writers to have appeared this decade.<br><br>An air-crash investigator haunts the hinterlands of an island--around the isolated honeymoon hot spot, the Drome Hotel--gathering the debris from fallen planes that the islanders have fashioned into makeshift sheds and fences; but what kind of jigsaw is he really assembling as he paces the runway?<br><br>A young woman makes landfall on the island, crossing the interior to arrive at the Drome Hotel: desperate, strange--and strangely familiar.<br><br>Meanwhile, DJ Cormorant is trying to organize The Big One, a rave on the adjacent airstrip, and from all over <i>These Demented Lands</i> come twisted characters, converging for one final Saturday night at the Drome Hotel.