This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. You may have read my guest books. You may have worn the clothes he designed. Douglas Stewart's first novel, Shuggy Bain, won the Booker Prize, which is one of the world's top literary awards. Much of it was written when Stewart was working in the fashion industry, designing clothes for popular brands like Calvin Klein and Banana Republic.

Stuart wouldn't have predicted any of this from what his life was like growing up in a

working-class neighborhood in Glasgow, Scotland in the 80s. He was raised by a single mother who was

addicted to alcohol. Things weren't much better at school where he was relentlessly bullied. When he came to

understand that he was gay, he didn't know anyone else who was. The novel Shaggy Bain tells a story

very similar to Stewart's own childhood. Stuart has described his second novel, Young Mungo,

as a story about the dangers of first love between two young working

class men in Glasgow and about masculinity, conformity, and falling in love. In our book

Critic, Maureen Corrigan's review, she wrote, it's hard to imagine a more disquieting and

powerful work of fiction will be published anytime soon about the perils of being

different. Douglas Stewart has a new novel called John of John that explores themes of faith,

obligation, and how isolating secrets can be. It's set on a fictional island in Scotland's

Hebrides in a very old-fashioned conservative community of weavers.

There are two Johns in the story, a father and his son. The son is known as Cal. Cal has just graduated

textile school in Glasgow and reluctantly returns home when his father insists he needs

Cal's help to take care of Cal's sick grandmother.

Cal is gay and keeps it a secret from everyone, including his father. But as we learn early in the

story, the father, who is the deacon of his church, is also secretly gay. Father and son are

keeping the same secret from each other.

Douglas Stewart, welcome to fresh air and congratulations on your new book. Can you describe how you landed on the premise that both the father and son are gay and they're not only keeping it a secret from everyone else, they're keeping it a secret from each other?

Yes. I mean, I am a Scotsman who grew up in Glasgow, but I had never been to the

Outer Hebrides before. You know, they're quite far from the mainland, and it takes some effort

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