Name: John of John
Rating: 4.357142857142857 (7 reviews)
ISBN: 9783446285828

Douglas Stuart

John of John

AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK • Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, TIME, Oprah Daily, and Vogue “Douglas Stuart brilliantly weaved a layered, compelling and yet so intimate a story of identity, what it means to belong, and the courage to claim your own truth.”—Oprah Winfrey “One of 2026's literary triumphs.”—Boston Globe From the Booker Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo comes a vivid, moving novel following a young man returning to his Hebridean island home, a portrait of a father’s expectations and a son’s desires Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry back home to the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides to find that little has changed except for him. He returns to the windswept croft and the two pillars of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, tweed weaver, and lay preacher in the local Presbyterian church, and his maternal grandmother Ella, a profanity-loving Glaswegian whose steady warmth helped Cal weather the sudden departure of his mother. Cal privately wonders if any lonely men might be found on the barren hillsides of home, while John is dismayed by his son’s long hair, strange clothes, and seeming unwillingness to be Saved. But Cal isn't the only one in the croft house who is keeping secrets. As lambing season turns to shearing season, the threads holding together the community together become increasingly frayed, and nothing will remain as it was before. John of John is a singular novel about duty, passion, and the transformative power of the truth. It is a magnificent literary work that cements Douglas Stuart's reputation as one of our greatest novelists working today.

A Novel

His best novel so far. Loved the use of colour, and the love of it. Interrogation of masculinity and the way gay men's relationships with women are. Would like a knitted willy, pls.

It's Jessie

Incredibly rich characters, in a dreary Scottish setting that constantly wavers from bleak to cozy, much like the villagers in this small town. I loved how intimate we become to everyone’s thoughts, all the secrets that people kept, and how ultimately we got to wrestle with some big questions around sexuality and belonging.

Andre Bohrer

Cameron Voytko

I haven't read literary fiction that I didn't feel 'meh' about in so long, I nearly forgot how good it could be. A creeping, intimate look into the lives of people in a community that in many ways feels almost stuck in time. I loved the tangled relationship between our three main characters and the cast of islanders they interacted with. Many familiar plot beats (tension between father and son, religion and sexuality, expectation and desire, etc) felt renewed through strong character voices and quick, deft dialogue. I especially appreciated Stuart's approach towards morality; the characters live within the grey, and readers are encouraged to do the same.

John of John

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