7 best new books that everyone will be reading this summer

Douglas Stuart, who won the Booker Prize in 2020 with Shuggie Bain, is back with his new novel, John of John. Exploring the author’s signature themes of masculinity, working-class Scottish life and family relationships, Stuart takes us away from his home city of Glasgow to the Isle of Harris. At first, the novel appears to be about the coming home of John-Callum, a 22-year-old who has just graduated from art college on the mainland. With his dyed red hair, ‘strange clothes’ and artistic leanings, Cal is at direct odds with his father John, a devout Protestant, sheep farmer and a deacon in the small community’s Presbyterian church.

Reluctantly living with his sharp-tongued Glaswegian mother-in-law, Ella (a delightful character), John is troubled by his son’s free expression. An intimate portrait of a close-knit community in the rugged Outer Hebrides, John of John explores identity and belonging. Stuart has always written on mother-son relationships, but the tumultuous father-son dynamic in John of John confronts masculinity in a more complicated way. The tension between duty and religion, and desire and love, will keep you enthralled.