Be Near Me: From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Caledonian Road (Paperback)

Our summary description

As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.

In a small Scottish town, an English priest arrives to take over the local parish, stepping into a community that is not sure it wants him. He tries to settle into the rhythms of the place, but finds himself out of step with what people expect, and with a world he can barely understand.

He forms a friendship with two local youths, Mark and Lisa, and in doing so draws closer to the town’s undercurrents. Nights seem to grow darker. Tensions thicken, and what begins as unease becomes something more volatile. Before the summer is out, his quiet life is dragged into the glare of public hysteria, as if a story has been chosen for him and there is no refusing it.

Set against the sense of a religious war unfolding on his doorstep, Be Near Me moves through love and change, art and politics, and the uneasy reality of the way we live now.

Longlisted for the Booker Prize.