John Of John by Douglas Stuart

 

John-Calum Macleod has finished his university degree in art design but doesn't find work right away.  He stays in Glasgow where he can look for work and be openly gay but is running out of money and options.  When his father calls and says his grandmother needs him back home, he reluctantly goes back to the small island in the Outer Hebrides he grew up in.  

Nothing has changed there since he escaped.  His parents moved into a house when they were married with his grandmother.  His mother left when Cal was young and he stayed.  His father and grandmother don't get along, his father often talking in the native language so his grandmother can't understand.  Cal has siblings as his mother moved on and married his uncle and had more children.  He loves his siblings but has a strained relationship with his mother.  Above all, he hides his sexual orientation from his father.  But his father has sexual secrets also that have shaped his life and Cal's in turn.

Douglas Stuart is a Scottish author whose first book, Shuggie Bain, won the Booker Prize.  I loved that book and the following one, Young Mungo, but this one is definitely my favorite.  Cal is torn by his love for his family and what he owes them but at the end there is hope for everyone and I absolutely think this novel is a masterpiece.  I'll be shocked if it doesn't get a Booker nomination and I could easily see it as the winner this year.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.