Douglas Stuart is back

A tip of the hat to David Schwarz, who alerted me to the fact that The New Yorker recently interviewed novelist Douglas Stuart, who won the Booker Prize for his first novel, Shuggie Bain (which we read in 2022, on David's recommendation). He has just published a new novel, John of John, which is already getting a lot of buzz; it's the latest Oprah's Book Club pick, and sounds like a good candidate for our next reading list. The New York Times just published this rave review. Here is praise from Ron Charles, and a recent "Fresh Air" interview with the author.

The magazine asked Stuart to recommend some favorite gay novels. We read his first choice, Maria McCann's As Meat Loves Salt, back in 2006; while I'm not familiar with his other two recommendations, Clear by Carys Davies and Colm Toibin's The Story of the Night, he makes a persuasive case for both.