Awards

• Long-listed for Gordon Burn Prize 2023/2024 (UK)
• Long-listed for Gordon Burn Prize 2024 (UK)
• Short-listed for Gordon Burn Prize 2024 (UK)

Overview

AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE A GUARDIAN BEST MEMOIR OF 2023 A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023 John Niven's little brother Gary was fearless, popular, stubborn, handsome, hilarious and sometimes terrifying. After years of chaotic struggle against the world took his own life at the age of 42. Tracking the lives of two brothers in changing times - from illicit cans of lager in 70s sitting rooms to ecstasy in 90s raves - O Brother is a tender, affecting and often uproariously funny story. It is about the bonds of family and how we try to keep the best of those we lose alive. It is about black sheep and what it takes to break the ties that bind. Fundamentally it is about how families survive suicide, 'that last cry, from the saddest outpost.'

Full Product Details

9781805303343

Table of Contents

Reviews

Vivid, visceral, brilliantly funny in places, dispensing sharp punches to the gut in others . . . [O Brother] made me sob more than once, and I suspect it will do the same to you * * Guardian * * Riotous and yet bracingly moving . . . Often exuberant, laugh-out-loud funny, touching, sad and rueful * * Observer * * Heartbreaking, and told with tenderness and honesty . . . The writing is first rate, without announcing how good it is. I can't recommend it strongly enough * * Spectator * * An honest epitaph for a troubled soul, tender and sentimental, but shot through with anger and regret for the things left unsaid * * The Times * * Oh my God, this book! O Brother feels like war-level reportage from the nuclear-blast that suicide inflicts on a family. [. . . ] A book whose genuine importance is only equaled by its sheer, visceral, compulsive readability -- CAITLIN MORAN Absurdly well-written, painfully funny and painfully painful -- ADAM KAY Tender, raw and beautiful . . . Niven is a tremendous storyteller. It is a memoir, it is a remembrance, and it is a guttural cry for us all to take those we love and hold them closer, to love them harder - to fight for them, in a society that gives up on men like Gary all too easily * * iPaper * * As moving, scalding, funny and harrowing as any memoir I've ever read -- IAN RANKIN O Brother is an extraordinary memoir; as devastating as it is colourful, forensic in its examination of family dynamics and oh so beautifully written. I earmarked so many pages that my copy doubled in width. Do not read the final chapter without a box of tissues -- JOJO MOYES Painfully honest [and] ferociously sharp on the contours of both brotherly love and brotherly rivalry. Of course, there's much more to it than that * * Scotsman * * This is one of the best memoirs I have ever read. It is a tribute to the sort of unglamorously off-kilter people, not really cut out for ordinary life, who are so rarely examined in books. It had me hooting with laughter, rage and despair in turn * * Daily Mirror * * An extraordinary book. Simultaneously tragic and funny and dark but shot through with bursts of light and laughter and joy -- CHARLIE HIGSON Heartbreaking and heartwarming -- WILL YOUNG This is a work of scalding honesty and candour which explores the devastating impact of suicide on a family . . . An act of remembrance and a testimony to his brother [. . .]. Transcendent power and anguish, shot through with brilliant humour and insight. I couldn't put it down -- SALI HUGHES The most brutally honest account of suicide and what it does to a family. John's pain is palpable on the pages. Yet this is no misery memoir, John brings his brother to life with real tenderness and love mixed with familiar west of Scotland black humour * * Sunday Mail * * Both searing and cauterising * * Scotland on Sunday * * [O Brother is] packed with righteous fury, dark humour and boundless love . . . It's also a brilliantly clear-eyed (and often extremely funny) look at the impact of music on John's life * * Irvine Times * * An incredible read . . . It's an overpowering story of family trauma and amongst the most profound memoirs I've ever read. This is a must read * * Daily Mirror * * Niven navigates the story with compassion and chaotic humour, reasserting Scotland's unbridled ability to produce books that dig deep into maleness, social places and personal memory * * National * * Funny, desperately sad, the story of two brothers told by the one who survives, is also a puzzle and a cry of pain from the writer John Niven * * Northern Times * *

Vivid, visceral, brilliantly funny in places, dispensing sharp punches to the gut in others . . . [O Brother] made me sob more than once, and I suspect it will do the same to you * * Guardian * * Riotous and yet bracingly moving . . . Often exuberant, laugh-out-loud funny, touching, sad and rueful * * Observer * * Heartbreaking, and told with tenderness and honesty . . . The writing is first rate, without announcing how good it is. I can't recommend it strongly enough * * Spectator * * An honest epitaph for a troubled soul, tender and sentimental, but shot through with anger and regret for the things left unsaid * * The Times * * Oh my God, this book! O Brother feels like war-level reportage from the nuclear-blast that suicide inflicts on a family. [. . . ] A book whose genuine importance is only equaled by its sheer, visceral, compulsive readability -- CAITLIN MORAN Absurdly well-written, painfully funny and painfully painful -- ADAM KAY Tender, raw and beautiful . . . Niven is a tremendous storyteller. It is a memoir, it is a remembrance, and it is a guttural cry for us all to take those we love and hold them closer, to love them harder - to fight for them, in a society that gives up on men like Gary all too easily * * iPaper * * As moving, scalding, funny and harrowing as any memoir I've ever read -- IAN RANKIN O Brother is an extraordinary memoir; as devastating as it is colourful, forensic in its examination of family dynamics and oh so beautifully written. I earmarked so many pages that my copy doubled in width. Do not read the final chapter without a box of tissues -- JOJO MOYES A brutal and brilliant sibling memoir. It's with both humour and pathos that [John Niven] recalls his and Gary's early life growing up in Irvine, Ayrshire, their diverging adult trajectories * * Guardian * *

Vivid, visceral, brilliantly funny in places, dispensing sharp punches to the gut in others . . . [O Brother] made me sob more than once, and I suspect it will do the same to you * * Guardian * * Riotous and yet bracingly moving . . . Often exuberant, laugh-out-loud funny, touching, sad and rueful * * Observer * * Heartbreaking, and told with tenderness and honesty . . . The writing is first rate, without announcing how good it is. I can't recommend it strongly enough * * Spectator * * An honest epitaph for a troubled soul, tender and sentimental, but shot through with anger and regret for the things left unsaid * * The Times * * Oh my God, this book! O Brother feels like war-level reportage from the nuclear-blast that suicide inflicts on a family. [. . . ] A book whose genuine importance is only equaled by its sheer, visceral, compulsive readability -- CAITLIN MORAN Absurdly well-written, painfully funny and painfully painful -- ADAM KAY Tender, raw and beautiful . . . Niven is a tremendous storyteller. It is a memoir, it is a remembrance, and it is a guttural cry for us all to take those we love and hold them closer, to love them harder - to fight for them, in a society that gives up on men like Gary all too easily * * iPaper * * As moving, scalding, funny and harrowing as any memoir I've ever read -- IAN RANKIN O Brother is an extraordinary memoir; as devastating as it is colourful, forensic in its examination of family dynamics and oh so beautifully written. I earmarked so many pages that my copy doubled in width. Do not read the final chapter without a box of tissues -- JOJO MOYES Painfully honest [and] ferociously sharp on the contours of both brotherly love and brotherly rivalry. Of course, there's much more to it than that * * Scotsman * *

Author Information

John Niven is the author of eleven books, including Kill Your Friends, The Second Coming and Straight White Male. As a screenwriter his credits include The Trip, Kill Your Friends and How to Build a Girl. O Brother is his first non-fiction book. @estellecostanza

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