Doug Johnstone | The Ossians

9781917764209

09/04/26

PB

276 pages

‘A drug-fuelled, counterclockwise state-of-the-nation rock ’n’ roll tour captures where we were at better than any modern novel I’ve read’ — Irvine Welsh

‘A powerful and moving commentary on the country and its defining myths’ — Ian Rankin

Connor is twenty-four: brilliant, broken, and out of control. He’s the swaggering frontman of The Ossians, a Scottish indie band on the brink of signing a major record deal.

Desperate to make their mark, they set off on a two-week winter tour across Scotland’s cities and hinterlands — a last-ditch attempt to find fame, purpose, and themselves.

But the tour soon spirals into a surreal, chaotic odyssey. From seedy bars and snowbound towns to a final, defining Glasgow gig, the band hurtles through a whirlwind of seagull massacres, botched drug deals, a mysterious stalker, radioactive beaches, bomb-testing ranges, epileptic fits, riotous Russian submariners, deadly storms, epiphanies, regular beatings and random shootings.

Raw, darkly funny and wild with energy, The Ossians is a gloriously anarchic story of rock’n’roll obsession, national identity and self-destruction — and what it means to belong: in a band, in a country, in a life unravelling at speed.