John Calum Macleod, known as Cal, to distinguish him from his father John Macleod (thus, the title John of John), is called to return to his Western Scottish island home to help care for his ailing grandmother. Reluctantly, Cal leaves Edinburgh for a life he wanted to leave behind.
Cal has graduated from art school with little to show for his degree. Whether its guilt or a sense of duty, it’s easy enough to leave since he has no job prospects, is out of money, has no friends and no excuses to continue his life on the mainland.
Author Douglas Stuart is at his best describing the harsh, windswept landscape, which is as much a character in the narrative as the people portrayed. This includes several even harsher residents: John is among them. Ella, Cal’s grandmother is not at death’s door, but she is a thorn in John’s existence: she is his mother-in-law, whose family has owned the croft they live for generations. Cal’s mother left John years ago.
John is a sheep farmer, weaver and lay minister with strict, inflexible ideas of how life should be lived. He loves his son, but has difficulties accepting him for who is. In truth, he knows little about Cal; Ella has more insight and is more caring.
This is a novel about hypocrisy, families, friendships, secrets and desires to be free of what others will think – which accounts for the large numbers of lies the characters tell to each other and themselves.
John of John
Four bookmarks
Grove Press, 2026
403 pages, includes acknowledgements
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