Belle & Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch is publishing a novel.
Well, it was inevitable: Stuart Murdoch is having his John Darnielle moment: the Scottish purveyor of your favorite “old sad bastard” music will publish his debut novel, Nobody’s Empire, with HarperVia (US) and Faber (UK) in September 2024.
Here’s a brief description from the announcement on the band’s Instagram: “Part memoir and part fiction, the novel is set in Glasgow and California in the early 1990s and follows a character in ‘search of a new-world reinvention’ after having been in hospital for chronic fatigue syndrome.”
“I drifted into writing Nobody’s Empire,” Murdoch told The Bookseller. “It felt like the right time to tell this story in long-form, even though I have been singing about it for years. I imagined I was writing it for the [myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome] community and as the book went on it became more important to me, gaining a life of its own. I needed it as much as it needed me and I leant heavily on it for solace. Therefore, when it was picked up by Faber for publication, I was elated and very relieved. Hopefully, this is the start of a beautiful relationship!”
Too much to hope for a new album to go along with it?
Photo: Marisa Privitera Murdoch
