Connor is twenty-four, brilliant, broken, and out of control. He’s the swaggering frontman of The Ossians, a Scottish indie band on the brink of signing a major record deal.
Desperate to make their mark, they head off on a two-week winter tour across the cities and hinterlands of Scotland – a last-ditch attempt to find fame, purpose, and themselves. But the tour soon spirals into a surreal, chaotic odyssey.
From seedy bars and snowbound towns to a final, defining Glasgow gig, the band hurtles through a whirlwind of seagull massacres, botched drug deals, a mysterious stalker, radioactive beaches, bomb-testing ranges, epileptic fits, riotous Russian submariners, deadly storms, epiphanies, regular beatings and random shootings.
Raw, darkly funny and wild with energy … a gloriously anarchic story of rock’n’roll obsession, national identity and self-destruction, and what it means to belong – in a band, in a country, in a life unravelling at speed.
Doug Johnstone is the author of nineteen novels, many of which have been bestsellers. The Space Between Us was chosen for BBC Two’s Between the Covers, while six of his books have been shortlisted or longlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year or the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year.
Doug has taught creative writing or been writer in residence at universities, schools, writing retreats, festivals, prisons and a funeral directors. He’s also been an arts journalist for twenty-five years.
He is a songwriter and musician with ten albums released, and drummer for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club.
My thoughts: Connor reminds me of so many of my friends when we were in our early twenties, rootless, unsure of themselves, desperate to matter. Basically almost every twenty-something at some point. Only I don’t think they were all as self-destructive as Connor. Good thing he isn’t real because no one can survive on that many drugs and alcohol with no food or sleep for so long.
The Ossians, who might be headed for the big time, made up of Connor, his twin sister Kate, girlfriend Hannah and best mate Danny, plus manager Paul, are off on a tour of Scotland’s further reaches, some a bit off the beaten path.
Connor owes a rather nasty drug dealer a lot of money, and as he doesn’t have it, he’s now a delivery boy for said charmer, carting around a bag full of drugs and cash to exchange with a network of equally under the cosh strangers. Except he hasn’t told the others, and they’re definitely getting suspicious.
He’s also so off his face pretty much permanently, and like a lot of twenty-something’s thinks his every thought is profound and completely original. He says he’s on a quest to discover the real Scotland, but he isn’t very impressed by what he finds.
The rest of the band try to keep the tour going, but in between Connor’s wanderingd, getting punched in the face multiple times and some of the truly strange encounters they have, Hannah collapses on stage, Kate and Danny might be becoming a thing, and they keep having to cut gigs short, so they’re not exactly making money.
As they head to Glasgow and a make or break gig, Connor goes missing, and has an epiphany, one with consequences for them all. Perhaps this tour wasn’t the best idea.
Darkly comic, full of twists and weird moments, including a submarine full of Russians in a tiny Scottish town, this is a reminder of why it’s quite nice not to be in your twenties and unsure of where you belong anymore.
I can see the brilliance that is the Skelfs and the Enceladons trilogy emerging here, Johnstone’s wry view of the world is present and that dark humour that flows through all of his books. I missed this book on its first time out so it’s really nice to read it in this shiny reissue from the Orenda Books team.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 