IT has been described as a "savage, wise and witty tour-de-force" by JK Rowling, and has been one of the most talked-about books published in Scotland in recent times.
Now Poverty Safari, the debut by the writer and rapper Darren McGarvey, also known as Loki, has won one of the UK's most prestigious literary awards, The Orwell Prize.
The chair of the award's judges said that "George Orwell would have loved this book" and compared it to Orwell's classic books on poverty.
The "unflinching account of the realities of systematic poverty" won McGarvey the £3,000 cheque for his first book, which is published by Luath Press, of Edinburgh.
The writer was presented with the prize by Richard Blair, the son of George Orwell.
Read more: The Herald's review of Poverty Safari
The Orwell Prize, a prestigious prize for political writing, is awarded by The Orwell Foundation each year to the book which comes closest to the writer George Orwell’s ambition "to make political writing into an art."
Orwell, real name Eric Blair, was perhaps the 20th century's most famous political writer, and wrote much of his masterpiece, 1984, in Scotland, on the island of Jura.
The win is also a coup for Luath, a small press based in the Scottish capital.
Andrew Adonis, the chair of the judges, said: "George Orwell would have loved this book.
"It echoes Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier.
"It is heart-rending in its life story and its account of family breakdown and poverty.
"But by the end there is not a scintilla of self-pity and a huge amount of optimism. It made me see the country and its social condition in a new light."
Read more: Loki says Creative Scotland has working class problem
Fellow judge, Alex Clark, added: "What distinguishes Poverty Safari from a “straight” description of a working-class life is his searing examination of the narratives that surround poverty - and the way in which no individual, least of all him, can neatly be fitted into them."
Mr McGarvey grew up in Pollok in Glasgow, and as well as being a writer, columnist, activist and musician, is a former rapper-in-residence at Police Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit.
He was part of the Poverty Truth Commission that was hosted in Glasgow in 2009 and has presented eight programmes for BBC Scotland exploring the root causes of anti-social behaviour and social deprivation.
He is active on social media, notably Twitter, and is in favour of an independent Scotland.
Previous winners of The Orwell Prize for Books include John Bew for Citizen Clem (2017) Arkady Ostrovsky for The Invention of Russia (2016), Raja Shehadeh (2008), Alan Johnson (2014) and Andrea Gillies (2010).
Yesterday Gavin MacDougall, of Luath Press, announcing a new deal with Picador for the book, said: "From the moment Darren came to see me with an initial A4 outline of what Poverty Safari might be, through to the first ever standing ovation I've witness at the Edinburgh International Book Festival....we've always been convinced that this book can and will make a real difference to people's lives."
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