In 2020, Douglas Stewart won the Booker Prize for his debut novel, Shuggy Bain, set in 1980s,

Glasgow, about a boy caring for his mother struggling with alcoholism. His latest novel,

John of John, out today, follows Cal, a young man returning to his hometown on a rural

Scottish island and grappling with his identity,

his religion, and his father, John. Jeff Bennett spoke to Stewart for the latest episode

of our podcast, Settle In. Here's a clip of their conversation.

Where did this story come from? And did you know where John and Cal were headed when you started?

Yeah, I actually began this novel in 2019 when I was waiting for my debut novel, Shuggy Bain, to publish.

You know, I was filled with anxiety and I'd sort of taken my fashion career and put it on hiatus,

and I was wondering if that was the right thing to do to risk it on my dreams of becoming a writer. And so I was looking at my husband one day and I said, I have an idea for a new novel I want to write, but I have to go to the Outer Hebrides. And as a kid growing up in the inner city of Scotland, I'd never been to the islands. You know, it's a, the Outer Hebrides are an archipelago of islands that sit off the northwest coast of Scotland.

And they're absolutely stunning, but they're quite difficult to get to.

And so I think my husband was sick of dealing with my anxiety, and he said, 12 weeks away from me,

sounds like a great idea. And so he totally co-signed me going to the islands. But I showed up

on the islands in 2019, knowing only two people. And I was there,

first of all, for 12 weeks. And I just sort of traveled up the islands and got a sense of my own

country, a sense of the people. And I found that everybody was incredibly generous with their time.

They were curious about what I was doing, what I was interested in. And I fell in love with the place. You know, I sort of journeyed

up from, there's a very small island at the bottom called Vattersea, and I went up about four to five

islands until I got to the Isle of Harris, which is almost near the very top. And when I got there,

I realized that there was a convergence of fascinating things. First, it's the last stronghold of Scottish Gallic, the language.

It is the sort of home of a very conservative Calvinism. There is beautiful Harris Tweed weaving.

And then there's a crofting way of life that's sort of dying, you know, a subsistence farming

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