Belle & Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch has announced details of his debut novel.
Described as “part memoir and part fiction,” Nobody’s Empire follows a lead character named Stephen with the same chronic fatigue syndrome as Murdoch himself. It will be released in September 2024.
“I drifted into writing Nobody’s Empire,” Murdoch said in a statement. “It felt like the right time to tell this story in long-form, even though I have been singing about it for years. I imagined I was writing it for the ME/CFS community and as the book went on it became more important to me, gaining a life of its own.
“I needed it as much as it needed me and I leant heavily on it for solace. Therefore, when it was picked up by Faber for publication, I was elated and very relieved. Hopefully, this is the start of a beautiful relationship!”
Bloody delighted to be a f..f..Faber author! We will polish the book up for you in time for next year, get some nice art work done too.😊 https://t.co/ROzRp31C1C
— stuart murdoch (@nee_massey) September 13, 2023
Earlier this year, Belle & Sebastian cancelled their American tour, citing Murdoch’s health.
The statement read: “Hi folks. It’s Stuart from Belle and Sebastian here. We are sorry to have to announce the cancellation of our North American tour for 2023.
“As you might be aware my health took a dive around November 2022. While I am hoping that I will improve over the coming months, we felt it would be a safer route to cancel this tour and leave a clear path to recovery, rather than take a risk and have to cancel at the last minute.
“We had a great plan in place, to release our second LP in six months and hit America up again! While the record made it out, we’re going to have to wait a bit longer until we can tour it. We apologise again for the inconvenience we have caused you. Sincerely yours, Stuart.”
At the start of 2023, the band announced details of a surprise new album, ‘Late Developers’, and shared the single ‘I Don’t Know What You See In Me’. It’s the Scottish indie veterans’ 12th studio album and was released on January 13.
Arriving just eight months after their last record ‘A Bit Of Previous’, Murdoch recently told NME that ‘Late Developers’ was born of the same sessions in the band’s native Glasgow in 2021. After plans for to record in Los Angeles were abandoned due to the coronavirus pandemic, the group converted their rehearsal space into a COVID-safe makeshift studio. Murdoch explained how after the downtime of lockdown, he entered sessions for ‘A Bit of Previous’ “with about 30 songs”.
