John of John

About the book

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2026
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR FICTION
AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK

‘You finish the novel feeling emotionally enriched and slightly bereft at leaving its characters behind’ – The Sunday Times
‘This book is special’ – Colm Tóibín
‘Passionate, liberating, and gorgeous’ – Min Jin Lee
‘Brilliant and rare’ – Ann Patchett
‘A masterpiece’ – Elaine Feeney
‘A fierce, glorious sting of a novel’ – Lauren Groff

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.

‘Stuart’s most consummate work of literature to date’ – The Observer

‘Intimate yet epic in scale . . . enthralling’ – The Guardian

‘Miraculous . . . This beautiful story of literal and metaphorical homecoming is wholly satisfying’ – Daily Mail

‘A capacious, ambitious novel, both swiftly readable and genuinely profound’ – The Daily Telegraph

‘A superb example of what a novel can do . . . I'd give him another Booker right away’ – The Scotsman

‘Told in beautiful, thoughtful prose that transports readers to lives and locales they will never know’ – FT

‘Douglas Stuart at his best . . . Reader, hold this masterpiece in your hands and feel yourself forever changed’ – The Mirror