Douglas Stuart tells of 150 hours of “kitchen chats”

It is the third novel from Stuart, who won the Booker Prize for his debut novel, Shuggie Bain.

Stuart was in An Lanntair in conversation with fellow writer Kevin MacNeil and revealed the initial inspiration for the book was the classic 1986 documentary ‘Flight from Vatersay’ which told the story of a lonely young man leaving the island to seek a new life and work.

Fascinated, Stuart vowed to go to the Outer Hebrides and “discover my own country for myself”.

He had been the son of a single mother who worked as a cleaner in shopping centres, struggled with addiction, and “didn’t have enough money to take us out and show us our own country”.

His first visit was in 2019 and Stuart came back again in 2023.

He started one of his visits in Vatersay and worked his way up. He recalled arriving in Harris and thinking: “The novel feels like it’s here."

When he came back the second time, he stayed for three months and during that time he spoke to “hundreds of people”, knocking doors and speaking to anyone who would speak to him.

He was still an unknown, as Shuggie Bain had not yet come out.

Stuart told how people would view him with suspicion when he knocked their door, asking: “You’re not from the BBC are you?”

He got laughs from the audience when he said: “I don’t know what the BBC’s done but I would say, ‘I’m not with the BBC’. And they said, ’Oh come in, come in.’

“I came away with almost 150 hours of audio conversations, just sitting at kitchen tables, just chatting about anything that came up in conversations. And I realised then that everything I’d ever learned about the islands wasn’t necessarily true.”

He also entertained the audience with his story of going up to Tarbert for his weekly shop and being told: “You’ll be the writer then.” After being asked how the beach was on Wednesday, he realised he had been “alone all week... but not unobserved”.

His new novel, about a young gay man who returns home to a religious and repressive home, has become an instant hit. Released only last month, it already has global reach after Oprah picked it for her book club.

Stuart spoke about the excitement of being chosen by Oprah and his desire to give her Harris Tweed, given the role of weaving in the book.

He revealed Oprah had been codenamed ‘Brenda’ in his discussions with Harris Tweed Hebrides during the development of the bespoke tweed – a purple-based check inspired by Oprah’s love of The Color Purple and her Oscar-nominated appearance in the film.

During the talk, Stuart was asked “how important” it was to him that the book would resonate with islanders.

He touched on that “defensive” aspect to being written about, and said it was “very important” to him that islanders would know he had done his research.

He stressed literature was “a work of imagination” but he had ultimately spent 16 weeks here because “I wanted it to feel like it came from here”.

His novels were about “about humans” and he said: “It’s not my business to know if you like it or not but I hope you think I did my diligence.”