An Evening with John Niven
Friday 23rd February | 7PM | £5 per ticket
Join us for An Evening with John Niven at Maldon Books!
We are thrilled to welcome the acclaimed author, John Niven, to our store. John will be discussing his Sunday Times bestselling memoir, ‘O Brother.’
About ‘O Brother’
John Niven’s little brother Gary was fearless, popular, stubborn, handsome, hilarious and sometimes terrifying. In 2010, after years of chaotic struggle against the world, he took his own life at the age of 42. Hoping for the best while often witnessing the worst, John, his younger sister Linda and their mother, Jeanette, saw the darkest fears they had for Gary played out in drug deals, prison and bankruptcy.
While his life spiralled downward and the love the Nivens shared was tested to its limit, John drifted into his own trouble in the music industry, a world where excess was often a marker of success. Tracking the lives of two brothers in changing times – from illicit cans of lager in 70s sitting rooms to ecstasy in 90s raves – O Brother is a tender, affecting and often uproariously funny story. It is about the bonds of family and how we try to keep the finest of those we lose alive.
It is about black sheep and what it takes to break the ties that bind. Fundamentally it is about how families survive suicide, ‘that last cry, from the saddest outpost.’
About John Niven
In 2008, Ayrshire-born John Niven put years of writing for the music industry to good use in Kill Your Friends, his electric satire of the media business, a novel perceived by many as the British riposte to Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. Since, Niven has carved out a career as novelist, columnist and screenplay writer, with books miming a certain caustic and often darkly-humorous vein of human fallibility. Kill ‘Em All, his sequel to his debut, was released in 2018. O Brother, published in 2023, has been shortlisted for this year’s Gordon Burn Prize, and selected as a Guardian best memoir of 2023.
About the event
This event is due to take place on Friday 23rd February at our bookshop. Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite, and you can preorder a copy of the book to collect at the event too. We’ll also be serving prosecco and soft drinks on the night. Please aim to arrive for 6:45pm. If you need to get in touch, please contact us at maldonbooksltd@gmail.com