Kirkus
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In Scotland’s Hebrides islands, a closeted gay man returns home to an insular community of sheep farmers and weavers, where complications and secrets await. Stuart follows his Booker Prize–winning debut,Shuggie Bain (2020), and acclaimed second novel,Young Mungo (2022), both set in Glasgow, with a coming-of-age story set in a very different part of Scotland. John-Calum Macleod has left art school in Edinburgh, broke and without prospects, called home to the Isle of Harris by his father because his grandmother is unwell. Ella, his mother’s mother, lives with her former son-in-law on his croft while her remarried daughter lives elsewhere with her husband and younger children. The reason for this unusual arrangement will become clear slowly, along with other key issues: Why Cal’s father, also named John, a pillar of the extremely conservative local Presbyterian church, is so tortured; what led to the end of his marriage; whether Cal’s attempts to hide his sexuality from everyone except the neighbor boy who used to be his lover have been successful. When that boy, Doll Macdonald, gives Cal an icy cold shoulder upon his return, his attention falls on his father’s best friend, Innes MacInnes, a never-married man who lives with his own ancient, infirm father and emotionally estranged brother. Could Innes possibly be gay? Cal wonders. The 22-year-old Cal exists at the confluence of two profoundly different cultures. On the one hand, he speaks Gaelic with his father, works nights weaving traditional tweed on their loom, helps with the sheep, and attends his father’s evangelical church. On the other, he takes ecstasy, goes to a booze- and sex-focused hullabaloo on a party bus, tries to find a hook-up in the personal ads (it seems to be the 1990s). The central question of the book, which is facing all the main characters, is whether it’s possible to inhabit the place one calls home as one’s genuine self. Stay or go? Life or death? By the end, this issue is resolved in a variety of tragic and hopeful ways. With his gift for creating vibrantly specific characters and settings, Stuart again taps profound human truth. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
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Booker Prize winner Stuart (Shuggie Bain) showcases his impressive gift for characterization in this perceptive and propulsive story of a tight-knit community of Gaelic-speaking sheep farmers and weavers on the remote Scottish isle of Harris. When John-Calum “Cal” Macleod returns from college on the mainland, his father, John, issues a stern accounting: “So, all that money, four years, no woman, and no job.” John, a strict Calvinist and lay pastor at the local church, is both loving and violent, embittered that Cal’s mother abandoned him for his own brother, leaving him to raise Cal with his contentious mother-in-law. John loves Cal, but not his long dyed hair or soft demeanor, and their altercations often end in slaps or with John making a fist while pronouncing his disapproval (“I could do without becoming known as the man who has a hugger for a son”). Cal finds solace with his Walkman and hides his continuing attraction to a neighbor, with whom he experimented sexually when they were teens, and Stuart adds a surprising and deeply affecting layer to the narrative by exploring John’s own secrets. Stuart’s deeply humane character work extends beyond father and son to their neighbors, including a sensitive middle-aged bachelor who belongs to John’s book club and cries while discussing Wuthering Heights. The author continues his winning streak with this brilliant novel. Agent: Anna Stein, CAA. (May)

Library Journal
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Shortly after graduating from university, John-Calum Macleod, who goes by Cal, is called home by his father, the dour John, to the Isle of Harris, a small island off Scotland, to help care for his ailing but boisterous maternal grandmother, Ella. At school, Cal embraced his queerness but now finds himself back in the closet amid the island's strict Presbyterian community. Cal's secret is one of many across the family and town. Despair pervades the Isle of Harris—residents are being priced out by holidaymakers, the population is declining, and the island's weaving and sheep farming industries are weakening—but its inhabitants also make a strong community and experience moments of joy and connection. Booker Prize winner Stuart (Young Mungo) is in peak form, telling this story with an evocative sense of place, precise and complicated characterizations, and laugh-out-loud humor. Even when characters act their worst, their vulnerabilities and humanity shine through, making the tragedy of their decisions more poignant. A triumph. VERDICT A beautiful book that readers will want to pass directly to all of their friends. Fans of complicated literary family sagas, such as Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, will be in heaven.—Jon Jeffryes

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Booker Prize–winner Stuart’s third novel addresses such universal themes as identity, family, faith, and the idea of home, but unlike his previous works, which were set in Glasgow, it takes place on the Hebridean island of Harris. It is both a coming-of-age and a self-discovery story. John-Calum Macleod, or Cal, is a young gay man who returns home after attending art school in Edinburgh. Uncertain about his future, he awkwardly tries to renew bonds with his strict father, John, a devout, Gaelic-speaking Presbyterian lay minister and sheep farmer, and his maternal grandmother, Ella, a blunt but kindhearted Glaswegian who has shared the house with John ever since Cal’s mother left. The biblical-sounding title is a riff off the novel’s religious subtext as well as a play on the names of the protagonists. John of John is an immersive experience rather than a plot-driven tale, as the reader is given plenty of time to get to know the characters, the culture, and the environment. Slowly but seamlessly, relationships are revealed, secrets divulged. As always, Stuart’s prose is a joy to read and get lost in. He conveys both the beauty and the isolation of the Hebridean setting while illuminating the lies we tell ourselves in order to cope.