JOHN NIVEN discusses THE FATHERS his hilarious and heart-breaking account of fatherhood, marriage, class & masculinity. With GUY GARVEY
The Rock 'n' Roll Book Club is thrilled to welcome John Niven and Guy Garvey to 21Soho for the London launch of John's 11th novel, The Fathers.
The Fathers is John’s first novel since the publication of his critically acclaimed memoir O Brother (2023), which was an instant Sunday Times bestseller, voted a best book of 2023 by the Guardian and Waterstones, and shortlisted for both the Gordon Burn prize and Scotland’s National Book Award. It is also his first novel set in Scotland since The Amateurs in 2009.
In a busy maternity ward, first-time father Dan meets Jada, a dad welcoming his fifth – no, sixth? – child into the world. Dan and Jada come from very different places: both called Glasgow. Dan is a successful TV writer with a townhouse in the West End and a shiny Tesla ready to drive his wife and baby home. Jada is a hustling, small-time criminal who is already planning how to separate Dan from some of the luxuries Jada has never been able to enjoy in his tiny flat in a Brutalist sixties council block.
Both men find that the birth of their sons has fired their ambitions. Dan plans to walk away from his saccharine TV success and finally knuckle down to writing that novel he always felt he had in him. While, for Jada, it’s the opportunity for one last get-rich-quick scheme – ripping off a local airport. When a tragedy occurs, their worlds are brought closer than either could ever have imagined – close enough that it could mean destruction for both of them…
in conversation, Q&A, book signing and DJs
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