Three Craws

Book excerpt: A thwarted artist returns home to rural Scotland in this bittersweet slacker debut by an acclaimed, internationally-renowned singer-songwriter. Johnny's return from London to stay with best friend Stevie is the final admission that his dreams of being a great artist are dead. In Victoria Bus Station he meets Mikey, a low-level dealer, who is from the same area. As Johnny tries to get his life back on track, living in a tiny cottage with Stevie, Mikey won't leave them alone, a constant presence destabilising everything around him. As Johnny tries to hang on to the only job he can get, Mikey's actions threaten his livelihood and Stevie's sanity. In a blackly comic climax, events take a sinister turn. Can Johnny and Stevie survive the consequences or will they be dragged down by their unwanted 'friend'? Three Craws is a beautifully evoked portrait of contemporary rural life for those dealt a meagre hand. Praise for Three Craws: 'Atmospheric, absorbing and darkly funny. Every bit as skilful as his songwriting.' Lauren Laverne 'Three Craws is assured, funny, and tragic all at once. Brilliantly captures the quirks and paraxoes of small town Scottish life.' Doug Johnstone, author of Gone Again, The Jump, and The Dead Beat 'James Yorkston's facility for an insidiously absorbing yarn isn't restricted to his songwriting. On Three Craws, he uses it to masterful and often hilarious effect, detailing a world with which we are all (too) familiar: one which occupies the yawning chasm between the lives we desire and the lives we have to accept.' Pete Paphides