“The truth is he didn't care how long he was going away. Forever would have suited him. It didn't matter it was America.”

From the Booker Prizewinning James Kelman, comes a road trip through the American South.

Murdo, a teenager obsessed with music, wishes for a life beyond the constraints of his Scottish island home, and dreams of becoming his own man. Tom, battered by loss of his wife, stumbles backwards towards the future, terrified of losing his dignity, his control, his son and the last of his family life. Both are in search of something new as they set out on an expedition through the American South. As they travel they encounter a new world and we discover whether the hopes of youth can conquer the fears of age.

Dirt Road is a major novel exploring the brevity of life, the agonising demands of love and the lure of the open road. It is also a beautiful book about the power of music and all that it can offer. From the understated serenity of Kelman’s prose emerges a devastating emotional power.

 

James Kelman was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989 with A Disaffection, which also won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. He went on to win the Booker Prize five years later with How Late it Was, How Late, before being shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2009 and 2011.