It's the early 1990s in Glasgow, and Stephen - music loving romantic - has emerged from a lengthy hospital stay diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, a little-understood disease that has robbed him of any prospects of work, a social life or independent living. Meeting fellow strugglers, who the world seems to care less and less for, they form their own support group and try to get by as cheaply and as painlessly as possible.

Finding that he has the ability to write songs, albeit in a slow and fledgling way, Stephen wakes to the possibility of a spiritual life beyond the everyday, and feels a calling for someplace else. Leaving Glasgow in search of a cure in the mythic warmth of California, Stephen and his friend Richard float between hostels, sofas, and park benches. Could the trip really offer them both a new-world reinvention?

Ostensibly a work of fiction, Murdoch’s novel is actually very autobiographical with vivid descriptions of the “somewhat stricken Glasgow independent scene” at the start of the early 1990s, the period before Murdoch got his band (Belle & Sebastian) together and recorded a classic run of albums starting with ‘Tigermilk’. The lead character ‘Stephen’ is clearly a version of Murdoch himself and the book is peppered with references to people drawn from the city’s indie scene as well as to the music they were listening to at the time.

First published October 10, 2024