John of John

Listen while you read. The audiobook is on Libro.fm for listeners in the UK, and part of every sale comes back to our shop. Get the audiobook

Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home to the island of Harris to find that not much has changed except for him.

In the windswept croft where he grew up, Cal resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of their local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.

While Cal wonders if any lonely men might be found on the barren hillsides of home, John is dismayed by his son's long hair and how he seems unwilling to be Saved. As the seasons pass, everything is poised to change as the threads holding together the fragile community become increasingly entangled.

The new novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo. 'This book is special' Colm Toibin

Author: Douglas Stuart

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2026

Published on 21 May 2026 by Picador.