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This Good Book

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This Good Book

By: Iain Hood
Narrated by: Clare Grogan
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About this listen

'Sometimes I wonder, if I had known that it was going to take me fourteen years to paint this painting of the Crucifixion with Douglas as Jesus, and what it would take for me to paint this painting, would I have been as happy as I was then?'

Susan Alison MacLeod, a Glasgow School of Art graduate with a dark sense of humour, first lays eyes on Douglas MacDougal at a party in 1988, and resolves to put him on the cross in the Crucifixion painting she's been sketching out, but her desire to create 'good' art and a powerful, beautiful portrayal means that a final painting doesn't see the light of day for fourteen years.

Over the same years, Douglas's ever-more elaborately designed urine-based installations bring him increasing fame, prizes and commissions, while his modelling for Susan Alison, who continues to work pain and suffering on to the canvas, takes place mostly in the shadows. This Good Book is a wickedly funny, brilliantly observed novel that spins the moral compass and plays with notions of creating art.

©2023 Iain Hood (P)2023 Renard Press Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Funny

Critic Reviews

'Astonishing, funny, bonkers, charming, disturbing, challenging, audacious, and, ultimately, profound.' (Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring)
'I have no words to say how good this book was. So dark and poetic, so original and intelligent, and so utterly unputdownable.' (Tim Ewins, author of We Are Animals)
'If you like your fiction fresh, original and challenging, This Good Book is for you… I had to think about it, for quite a while, and it's that kind of resonance that separates truly good books from the crowd.' (Simon van der Velde, author of Backstories)
'This is a more than a good book… This is a very good book! I savoured every page… a fabulous read that I highly recommend to one and all!' (Karen Mace)
'This is a damn good book… It is a very exciting thing as a reader to discover a book that feels entirely new. I can't recommend this book highly enough – you honestly won't have read anything like it before.' (Ellie Hawkes)
'The work of a true poet, this book is as dark and psychotic as it is beautiful and delicate… No book has ever reminded me of The Picture of Dorian Gray quite like this…' (Amelia Bashford, The Publishing Post)
'Nineteen-eighties Glasgow is evoked well… [and] the realisation of where the duo's commitment to their art is taking them is genuinely chilling. Hood's debut has a dark, compelling urgency.' (Alastair Mabbott)
'Highly original, darkly funny… a compulsive read.' (Leigh Chambers)
'This Good Book works as a commentary on the 'art is life, life is art' idea… it's also funny and has an offbeat writing style, which utilises Scottish dialect. Whether one is into religion or not, This Good Book's innovative use of art is definitely worth a read.' (Robert Pisani)
'A novel about Glasgow, about art, and about obsession. This Good Book will have you gripped from the opening chapter to its disturbing conclusion. Iain Hood is an original new voice in Scottish fiction.' (Colette Paul)
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