Belle and Sebastian unfortunately had to cancel their 2023 North American tour behind this year's surprise album Late Developers and last year's A Bit of Previous because of singer-songwriter Stuart Murdoch's health. He has been coping with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) for years — in fact, that's essentially the band's origin story: he basically spent seven years of his 20s unable to leave his bed, and formed Belle and Sebastian once his health had finally improved enough by the age of 30.
Murdoch is now using his experiences living with chronic illness to inform his literary debut, with the musician's first novel set to be published in September 2024 through HarperVia (North America) and Faber (UK).
Nobody's Empire — named after the track from 2014's Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance — is said to be set in early-'90s Glasgow and California, braiding together fiction and memoir as it follows a character who, after being hospitalized for ME/CFS, seeks "a new-world reinvention."
"I drifted into writing Nobody's Empire. It felt like the right time to tell this story in long-form, even though I have been singing about it for years," Murdoch explained in a statement obtained by The Bookseller. "I imagined I was writing it for the [myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome] 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!"
This isn't the first time the singer-songwriter has delved into other mediums: in 2012, he started crowdfunding a film accompaniment to his 2009 album God Help the Girl, which came to fruition for a 2014 release.
Murdoch is now using his experiences living with chronic illness to inform his literary debut, with the musician's first novel set to be published in September 2024 through HarperVia (North America) and Faber (UK).
Nobody's Empire — named after the track from 2014's Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance — is said to be set in early-'90s Glasgow and California, braiding together fiction and memoir as it follows a character who, after being hospitalized for ME/CFS, seeks "a new-world reinvention."
"I drifted into writing Nobody's Empire. It felt like the right time to tell this story in long-form, even though I have been singing about it for years," Murdoch explained in a statement obtained by The Bookseller. "I imagined I was writing it for the [myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome] 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!"
This isn't the first time the singer-songwriter has delved into other mediums: in 2012, he started crowdfunding a film accompaniment to his 2009 album God Help the Girl, which came to fruition for a 2014 release.