John of John Stuart Douglas (2026)

This contemporary English-language novel follows John-Calum Macleod, who is out of money and has little to show for his art-school education when he takes the ferry home to the Isle of Harris. In the windswept croft where he grew up, Cal resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver and pillar of the local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has maintained a fragile peace with her son-in-law for decades. While Cal wonders whether he might find any lonely men among the barren hills of home, John is dismayed by his sons long hair and apparent unwillingness to be Saved. As the seasons pass, everything is poised to change, and the threads holding the fragile community together become increasingly entangled. This heartbreaking story explores a young mans return home and the way family bonds are torn apart by the weight of expectation.