Stuart Murdoch

2 months ago | kansascity.com | Stuart Murdoch

I cried the first time I listened to the Belle and Sebastian song "Nobody's Empire." From the 2015 album "Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance," it is a perfect blend of raw emotion and deeply personal storytelling, twinkling with the Scottish band's trademark indie pop charm. That's the high expectation I had for frontman Stuart Murdoch's novel of the same name - to be moved to tears. It took many pages to appreciate the rhythm of the book, but I found the wet face I was looking for.

Jan 19, 2025 | tinnitist.com | Stuart Murdoch |Henry Alford |Alan Byrne

Well, this is novel. Literally. For the first time in forever, this roundup includes a work of fiction — Belle & Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch’s Nobody’s Empire. Then again, since it’s the story of a young Scottish man named Stuart who becomes a songwriter, calling it totally fictional might be a stretch. Either way, it’s on my to-do list — as is the new Joni Mitchell bio I Dream Of Joni, if only because I love a pun.

Jan 13, 2025 | startribune.com | Brooks Johnson |Stuart Murdoch

Fiction: The Belle and Sebastian frontman has a hit with his debut. January 13, 2025 at 2:00PMStuart Murdoch (Stuart Murdoch/HarperVia)I cried the first time I listened to the Belle and Sebastian song “Nobody’s Empire.” From the 2015 album “Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance,” it is a perfect blend of raw emotion and deeply personal storytelling, twinkling with the Scottish band’s trademark indie pop charm.

Nov 1, 2024 | literaryreview.co.uk | Stuart Murdoch

Nobody’s Empire is the first novel by Stuart Murdoch, the front man of the successful indie pop band Belle and Sebastian. Set in Glasgow and LA in the early 1990s, it is ostensibly the written testimony of Stephen, a youngish man living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, an awful disease that is under-researched and routinely misunderstood.

Oct 26, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Stuart Murdoch |Kristin Hannah |Colleen Hoover

Murdoch proves he’s as good a novelist as he is a musician. A young Scottish man waits for the moment to come when his composure returns. “I’m just nervous,” says Stephen, the narrator of singer-songwriter Murdoch’s debut novel.