Nobody’s Empire: Empathetic, funny and heartwarming. (Paperback)

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In early 1990s Glasgow, Stephen comes home from a long hospital stay with a diagnosis few understand. Chronic fatigue syndrome has narrowed his world, taking work, independence and much of his social life with it. Music remains, along with a quiet romantic streak and a growing awareness of how easily people like him are overlooked.

Alongside others living at the margins, Stephen forms a small support group, sharing time, money and endurance. He discovers a tentative ability to write songs, slowly and with effort, and with it a sense that meaning might exist beyond daily limitation.

Drawn by hope as much as desperation, Stephen leaves Glasgow for California with his friend Richard, chasing rumours of warmth and healing. They drift between hostels, borrowed sofas and park benches, suspended between illness and belief. What unfolds is a search not only for a cure, but for a way to live, and for the possibility of becoming someone new without leaving oneself behind.