Douglas Stuart - "John of John"

"Cal wondered if this was the moment to be honest with his father. Part of him wanted to tell his father he was gay, if only to hurt him for calling him home."

Cal had long known they would eventually force him back. He had spent a few years enjoying his freedom in Edinburgh - meeting men, letting his hair grow, even when money barely stretched to food. Now he is back on a remote island in the Outer Hebrides, where he must weave tweed with his strictly Presbyterian father John, whose meagre earnings barely keep the family afloat. In the isolation of the bleak island landscape, Cal longs for someone he can open up to - but no one here can know about his homosexuality, not when his long hair alone is enough for his father to call it sin. John, too, keeps a secret, one he shares only with his closest friend Innes.

With "John of John", Douglas Stuart - author of the Booker Prize-winning global bestseller "Shuggie Bain" - has written a novel that uses clear, precise language to examine a layered father-son relationship: love, shame, and duty set against the peculiar, suffocating closeness of island life.

Host: Jan Wilm
Reading of German texts: Helgi Schmid

Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow, studied at the Royal College of Art in London, and later moved to New York, where he worked as a fashion designer. His debut novel "Shuggie Bain", published in 40 countries, won the Booker Prize in 2020. His most recent novel is "Young Mungo" (2023).

Jan Wilm is a writer and translator who publishes in various literary journals. His works include the novel "Winterjahrbuch" (2019), the book "Ror.Wolf.Lesen." (2022), the essay "Bärtierchen", and the story collection "Sachertorte und andere Fiktionen". Wilm lives in Frankfurt am Main.

Helgi Schmid studied acting.