About this event
City Books present John Niven in conversation with Sali Hughes.
John Niven is known for his fiction. His first novel ‘Kill Your Friends’ has been followed by nine more highly respected bestsellers.
His new memoir ‘O Brother’ offers a new side to him: open and vulnerable, honest about his grief and often self-questioning, yet laced throughout with his trademark dark humour.
John’s little brother Gary was fearless, popular, stubborn, handsome, hilarious and sometimes terrifying. In 2010, after years of chaotic struggle against the world, he took his own life at the age of 42.
The family’s darkest fears they had for Gary played out in drug deals, prison and bankruptcy. While his life spiralled downward and the love the Nivens’ shared was tested to its limit, John drifted into his own trouble in the music industry: a world where excess was often a marker of success.
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 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.’
Sali Hughes is resident columnist for Guardian Weekend magazine and a features and comment writer for a range of magazines.
“Absurdly well-written, painfully funny and painfully painful.” ~ Adam Kay
“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
This special evening will also feature a Q&A and book signing.
