John of John Author: Douglas StuartISBN-13: 9781037416781Publisher: PicadorGuideline Price: £20Douglas Stuart exploded on to the literary scene in 2020 when his debut novel, Shuggie Bain, won the Booker Prize; a novel that was famously rejected by 40 publishers. Drawing on his experience growing up as gay and working class in Glasgow, it was cathartic and confrontational. A second novel, following such an auspicious launch, can be the undoing of an author: do they emulate what worked before or go in a different artistic direction? With Young Mungo, Stuart returned to Glasgow with a novel that read as an extension of the themes of his debut. What was clear, however, was that Stuart had taken everything he had learned from the writing of Shuggie Bain to enhance and refine his literary sensibilities. [ Douglas Stuart on writing Shuggie Bain: 'It was a difficult process'Opens in new window ]The fact that Stuart has set his third novel on a windswept croft in a Hebridean island community is an exciting development. Cal (22) has been summoned home from Edinburgh, where he had attended art school, by his devoutly Presbyterian father: “You’ve had your fun.” Now he must care for his declining grandmother while hiding his sexuality and, therefore, his true self. What are the consequences when your personal truth collides spectacularly with the values of your beloved? Returning home and feeling like a stranger is a universal theme throughout literary history; an irresistible subject for authors due to its intrinsic conflict, questions of identity, familial dynamics and the way it allows the protagonist a lens through which to see their past and present anew. Stuart capitalises on all these rich possibilities, but also maximises their potency by placing the novel in a setting so vibrant, textured and alive that the reader is fully transported. Irish readers will no doubt feel a kinship to the Gaelic-speaking community of the exquisitely drawn Isle of Harris. [ Douglas Stuart: ‘I felt overlooked by queer literature because it’s so middle class’Opens in new window ]That Cal will inevitably learn that he is not the only one with secrets is central to the multidimensionality of the narrative. If what he discovers is somewhat predictable, Stuart nonetheless delivers his denouement with confidence. As a powerful further perspective on Scottish masculinity, John of John is less a return to form but rather an evolution. A masterly storyteller with a poet’s prose, this is Stuart’s best yet. Helen Cullen is the author of The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually and the forthcoming Iseult.