The Ossians - Doug Johnstone

Book Details

Country: Scotland
Language: English
Genre: Modern Fiction
Publisher: Penguin UK
Publication Date: 2008


Fictional Artist: The Ossians
Genre: Indie, Punk
Country: Scotland
Real World Analogue: Johnstone has released albums under his own name and with Northern Alliance, but with Northern Alliance's Craig Smith, he wrote and released The Ossian's album for real. It's available on Bandcamp. 

Jacket Blurb: 

A rollicking and hugely enjoyable contemporary novel describing the outrageous mid-winter tour around Scotland of a group of musicians called 'The Ossians'. The band's driving force is twenty-four-year-old lead singer, Connor - intelligent but self-destructive, pretentious but charismatic, gloriously opinionated and with an extraordinary ability to get beaten up.

The band is on the verge of signing a major record deal before setting off on a two-week tour of the cities and hinterland of Scotland, a tour expected to culminate triumphantly in a defining Glasgow gig. On their travels there is a seagull massacre, hapless drug deals, a mysterious stalker, a radioactive beach, a bomb-testing range, an epileptic fit, a town full of riotous Russian submariners, deadly snowstorms, epiphanies, regular beatings and random shootings.

The Ossians is both hilariously readable and satirically astute, a story of rock'n'roll obsession as well as a search for identity and a sense of community, written with delicious insight, pace and brio.

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