Short of cash and with little art school success to show, Cal Macleod crosses by ferry to the Isle of Harris. Douglas Stuart sets him beside a father who farms, weaves tweed and preaches.
Readical Key Points
- Shortlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize, an Oprah's Book Club pick and an instant New York Times bestseller, according to the publisher
- Starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Booklist and Publishers Weekly
- Set among crofters and weavers on Harris, in Scotland's Outer Hebrides
- Content note: includes violence within the family
- Hardcover, 416 pages, Grove Press, 2026
Cal comes back to the croft and to the two people who anchored his early years. His father, John, keeps sheep, weaves tweed and preaches as a layman at the island's Presbyterian church. Ella, Cal's Glaswegian grandmother, is the warmth that saw him through his mother's sudden departure. John is troubled by the long hair, the odd clothes and Cal's apparent unwillingness to be saved. Cal, who is gay, keeps his hopes to himself, and he is not alone in keeping something hidden. Over lambing and shearing, the ties that hold the community together start to fray.
Readers of Stuart's Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo, and readers of literary fiction about what a father expects and what a son wants, will find both here. The man who weaves the tweed is also the one who preaches.
About the Author
According to his publisher, Scottish-American novelist Douglas Stuart won the 2020 Booker Prize and the Sue Kaufman Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters with his debut, Shuggie Bain. His second novel, Young Mungo, became a national bestseller and a British Book Award finalist, and his short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker.
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