Nobody's Empire: A Novel

by Stuart Murdoch

One of the great lyricists of our time, the lead singer and songwriter for the iconic Glasgow-based band Belle and Sebastian, pens a sensitive and intimate account—his debut novel based on his own youthful experiences—of dark days leading to light and a coming of age through music.

It’s the early 1990s in Glasgow, Scotland, and Stephen has emerged from a lengthy hospital stay. Diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, a little-understood disease that has robbed him of any prospects of work, friends, or independent living, he moves slowly toward new goals and meets others like him, including Richard, a friend from school, and Carrie, a young woman bedridden for five years. Feeling isolated and alone, they form their own support group, and try to get by with as little money and pain as possible. Since he’s been ill, Stephen never feels warm, inspiring Carrie to affectionately call him “The World’s Coldest Boy.” As the world seems to care less for them, the trio start to care less about fitting in with the world.

Stephen soon discovers he has a talent for writing songs. He awakens to the possibility of a spiritual life that transcends the everyday, and feels a calling for a place that might as well be on the other end of the universe let alone the world. Buoyed by tentative hope, he and Richard leave Glasgow in search of a cure in the mythic warmth and sun of California. As they float between hostels, sofas, and park benches, they discover the trip is life-changing in ways neither expected, and Stephen embraces a new-world reinvention that will change his life forever.
Melodic and captivating, filled with graceful notes, melancholic chords, and witty, thoughtful riffs on life's infinite possibilities and curiosities, Nobody’s Empire is a warm and wonderful coming-of-age novel, imbued with Stuart Murdoch's magical lyricism.

Genres: Fiction, Music, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Coming Of Age, Disability, Historical Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 2024

Reviews

[Gareth · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Nobody’s Empire’ for me was a unique, touching and compulsive read. So much more than a ‘coming of age’ novel, Stephens gentle meandering journey through his formative years is tenderly endearing. Sometimes stubbornly and other times more reluctantly, he refuses to be defined my his ME condition. We share his experiences through friendships, music, travel and even spirituality, but throughout there is an overriding sense that hope and solace can to be found even in the darkest of places. Tender, humorous and poignant this book is a joy.

[Morgan]

I did want to like this, due to the subject matter, and I respect that Murdoch is writing from his experience of ME and wants to shed light on the illness. But this just isn’t a successful novel. In an interview I read he mentions not having read fiction in many years, to which I can’t help but wonder… what makes you qualified to write it? This is incredibly shaggy and poorly edited, meandering and rambling; if he weren’t famous for something else it wouldn’t have been published. The seemingly arbitrary shifts between present and past tense were especially annoying. The book is also way too long, which emphasizes the overwriting and lack of editing.

Mostly I was bewildered by the depiction of ME. I realize that the illness is a spectrum and that the Stephen character is less debilitated than I am. I know people in a similar position. So that’s fine. But Murdoch is not specific about the disease’s actual symptoms or how it manifests physically. Although Stephen can’t work, he lives a very active life in these pages; he has to rest frequently but that’s all (and this isn’t explored in detail). It’s very strange given Murdoch’s own experience of the illness. I expected more description of PEM in particular, even if the characters don’t have this terminology available to them. There is also a lot of language about just willing yourself to feel better, which I think the book understands is pernicious, but the character has such a vague conception of illness and disability (in fact, he says he isn’t disabled, despite the fact that he clearly is) that all this talk becomes muddled and can be a bit troubling.

Again, I understand that this comes from a good place, but I don’t think everyone needs to write a book to express themselves. Murdoch has written an excellent song about the experience of ME and has campaigned for ME patients in a much more direct and persuasive way than he can in this book. Obviously he has other motivations here too but the book isn’t… good… when you’re already a gifted songwriter and musician why not continue expressing yourself in that medium?

A very frustrating reading experience.

[Renee Godding · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars, rounded up

“Delight in the small things, they say. I don’t know that it’ll be enough though. If this were one of those big Victorian novels, I wonder what sort of a character I would be. The one without prospects, the idiot son, the drinker of teas who barely gets a mention. I’ve got no plotline.”

Notes of coming of age, friendship, chronic illness, and making music combine into a resonant chord in this debut novel by Stuart Murdoch.

In the early 1990’s, Stephen (Murdoch’s clear fictional counterpart) has been recently diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME. Feeling daunted and isolated by his condition and the uncertainty it brings for his future, he develops a friendship and unofficial support group with Richard and Carrie; also in their twenties and struggling with ME, in different ways. We follow their friendship, their joined love for music that drives them to compose together, and their hesitant search for a way of life to suit their body’s tempo. That search eventually leads them from the Scottish cold to the Californian sunshine that changes their lives.

What I loved:
It’s very evident that Murdoch took a lot of autobiographical cues from his own life- and career. For that reason alone, this is an easy recommendation for fans of his music, who want to know more about “the man behind the voice”. I personally read this book mostly out of interest for the disability-rep and the descriptions of the early 90’s music-scene. Both delivered well. From the descriptions, it’s clear that the author has lived this experience. I especially loved the way he put into words how ME shaped his life and the way he navigated the world, and how naturally woven that was into the friendships he built. Richard, Carry and Stephen have a beautiful friendship and way of living together on their travels. They naturally integrate a lot of “crip-time” (in their case: moments of rest and recovery throughout the day) into their lifestyle, in a way that feels so gentle and “fitting”. They accommodate each other without judgement and travel towards their destinations (literally and metaphorically) at their own pace and with their own adjustments. That makes it so this book never becomes “a book about ME”. it’s about music, band-culture, friendship, love, adolescence and so many other things, experiences by people who happen to have a disability. It’s thát distinction that makes it feel so real and authentic.
I also loved Murdoch’s writing on a sentence-by-sentence and paragraph-by-paragraph- basis. Hardly a surprise considering his background as a lyricist. There are so many striking and quotable passages, including on disability, that I’m sure will resonate with a lot of readers. Although I don’t have ME, I do have an illness that limits my energy, and I personally found myself underlining a lot of relatable lines.

What I didn’t love:
On a sentence/paragraph-level, this was wonderful. When it comes to being a fully formed novel, the writing needed some work. I opened this review with a quote that beautifully puts an insecurity the protagonists feel about their life, but also illustrates my largest problem with the novel. I don’t mind plotless novels, but this one simply doesn’t have enough substance to carry it for almost 400 pages. This story, but minus 100 pages, cutting the repetition and the dragging parts, would’ve put it closer to a 5-star for me.

[Sian Fitzpatrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up.

Picked this up because I'm a Belle and Sebastian fan, and Stuart Murdoch is a solid guy.

I didn't dislike this book but there just wasn't enough going on to justify the length. Every time it seemed the story was actually going somewhere, the next chapter would start on a tangent. I found myself skimming paragraphs. I also wasn't a huge fan of the "breaking the 4th wall" narrative, addressing the reader with phrases like "do you see what I mean?" and "did I tell you?"

The characters were likeable (particularly Stephen, Stuart's fictional counterpart) and I did laugh out loud at some of the humour but definitely not one I'll be revisiting.

(Still love B&S; they're great live!)

[Nathan Phillips · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stuart Murdoch's lyrics for Belle & Sebastian are so impressive, capturing an atmosphere of melancholic youth with a certain spirit of irony while also scanning beautifully -- look at "Piazza, New York Catcher" for a perfect example, or "Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying" -- but the same flair doesn't quite extend to his prose, at least not in the case of this debut novel; I remember liking some of his diary entries that came packaged with the records, though I admit I took them as kind of a hazy stream-of-consciousness Dylan homage. Murdoch is a classic insular alt-rocker like David Byrne or Stephin Merritt insofar as he apes a certain abstract distance from his subject matter, but really and truly he's getting at truths about both the emotion and the self-perception in those songs. You can completely see why someone would find B&S insufferable, particularly someone who doesn't share Murdoch's (and my, as it happens) particular aesthetic obsessions with the '60s, with jangle-pop, with a certain collegiate sulkiness, etc., but I think that singularity gives his work real power and honesty, and of course his gifts as a melodicist are no small part of what sells the other stuff.

Alas, while I endured the entirety of this thinly veiled memoir, I really didn't like it. It's a book in which very little happens, even admitting as much in the last chapter, which might be all right except that its monotony isn't even poetic in the way I expected. I was somewhat interested in reading about the Glasgow and San Francisco of the early 1990s, and the narrator "Stephen"'s struggles with chronic fatigue syndrome as well as his passion for music are a good hook on which to hang everything, but you never escape that this is a straight translation of wispy, often inconsequential memory (numerous characters appear for one chapter and then never again), and that Murdoch isn't really successful in capturing the real essence of the feelings he obviously associates with these recollections for the reader. I'm particularly surprised by how dull the verbiage itself is; at one point near the end I was abruptly caught off guard by a beautiful turn of phrase, then I realized it was a Paul Simon quote. I don't know whether Murdoch's skills as a writer have slipped away a bit as he's gotten older -- I admit I've kind of lost touch on keeping up with Belle & Sebastian's activities in the last decade -- or if the rather barren and minimalist nature of this book is a deliberate choice, but either way I found it kind of a slog.

I did appreciate the mention of lots of bands and songs I love and even a few I hadn't known that I added to my playlists (Felt's "Riding on the Equator" is as stunning as he claims in the text), but even the integration of this stuff is a little clumsy. And that leads me to wonder about the distancing effect of making this a work of "fiction" in the first place (the guy's even writing Belle & Sebastian songs in the course of the piece!), but the reasons for that are probably none of our business.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stuart Murdoch is the lead singer of rock/pop group Belle and Sebastian and Nobody’s Empire is his debut novel. In a way I’m not surprised. Examine the liner notes of the early Belle and Sebastian releases and you’ll find mini stories. Lyrically, Murdoch’s songs have always had a literary quality to them.

This, however, does not mean that a musician is an author: novels by Nick Cave, Morrissey, Babybird’s Stephen Jones and Louise Weiner have proved this, although Belle and Sebastian’s ex bassist Stuart David did write an excellent novel called Nalda Said.

Nobody’s Empire is largely autobiographical, Stuart Murdoch has even written a song with the same title which approaches the condition mentioned in the book’s plot: The narrator, Stephen once a Dj, roadie and long distance runner is hospitalised Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which leaves him unable to do many things. At this point, life is a huge battle for him and he tries to do things he enjoys but is easily tired. He does have support groups and is close to two other CFS sufferers. He feels though that he’s just existing.

The big change happens when he goes to California on a whim and starts to approach life differently, even beginning to start playing music. Will he manage to see things differently or will his return to Glasgow set him back.

There’s a lot of charm in Nobody’s Empire. A sweet innocence which runs through the narrative, In theory it shouldn’t work but it does and the end result is a feel good tale which will affect the reader in some way. The characters are relatable and have depth, The American segment, which takes up half the novel is not an intrusion, I’m sure at one point in our lives we have the same emotions which run through Stephen. Belle and Sebastian fans will enjoy the little Easter eggs planted throughout the novel.

Nobody’s Empire not only reverses the ‘great lyricist, bad writer’ mantra but enters that category of feel good literature without descending into schmaltz.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a special book for me because I've been a fan of Belle and Sebastian, and Stuart Murdoch in particular, for so long. This novel is a slow and meditative examination of illness and identify. It captures the feeling I remember from being a young person trying to figure out how to be in a relationship and fill your days when you're not sure where your life is going. Stuart's earnestness, humor, and wonderment come through beautifully. I think anyone who lives with a chronic illness will also find much to relate to.

[F · Rating 2 out of 5]

The sort of novel where the pitch — ME illness memoir meets pop music memoir — is promising, but the end result is rather pedestrian. I’m surprised that Murdoch didn’t benefit from the advice of a more experienced editor to guide this project.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know much about this book when I ordered it, other than that it was by Stuart Murdoch, which was enough for me. I think I was expecting a tale of the eccentric, artistic outsiders you find populating Belle & Sebastian songs; loners and losers like Judy and her dream of horses, lazy line painter Jane, Sukie hanging out in the art school... and there is a bit of that.

I don't think I was expecting it to be quite so autobiographical. The first part, especially, seems to be pretty much a straight account of Stuart, sorry, Stephen's experiences with ME, his early attempts at song writing, his relationship with God... Which is all good, but he seems to be hiding behind the fact that this is fiction, leaving everything slightly blurred and out of focus. For example, the narrator never talks about the town he's from, just referring obliquely to "the small, Scottish town I grew up in", which I took to be Ayr, where Murdoch grew up, but it’s never named, so we're never sure, until, more than halfway through the book, the narrator mentions going back to "Ayr" to see his parents. So it was Ayr! You could have told us earlier. But instead, the town is never fleshed out. A vague idea of a town.

Similarly, the narrator's parents, his upbringing and even some of the main characters are never really described in detail. I wanted to know more about his family background, his schooldays, what made him who he is, but we never really find out, and, even after finishing the book, I still don't really feel I know Richard, one of Stephen's two best friends, other than that he is quiet and good at classical guitar. Which is frustrating.

Where the book comes into its own is on the narrator himself. Murdoch writes beautifully when talking about Stephen's views on music, on faith, his search for identity. He also writes well about Glasgow, its cafés, libraries and thrift stores. If you know Glasgow, it's nice to hear him talk with enthusiasm about these places. And if you know Belle & Sebastian, it's interesting to hear the genesis of what would later become songs. (If you get the audiobook, you even get to hear him play a couple.)

So while the format; not quite an autobiography, not quite a novel, is a bit frustrating sometimes, this is still worth checking out.

[Theresa Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should probably state upfront that I had no idea going into this book who Belle and Sebastian were, so it’s safe to say, I didn’t select this novel based upon being a fan of Stuart Murdoch and his music. What I did choose it for, was that I am always interested in novels that deep dive into chronic illness. Nobody’s Empire is auto-fiction, written in first person narrative, so it was anybody’s guess as to how I was going to go with this one. In the end, it was a mixed bag, and I have rated it 3.5 stars, but it came close, so close, to being more than that.

This novel has a lot of shining moments that set it apart and affected me greatly. Stuart is of course writing about his own experiences of living with chronic fatigue syndrome, and this is not lost on the reader with the physical and emotional depth he offers about the illness and his character’s experiences of it.

This is very much a coming-of-age story underpinned with strong themes of friendship and connection. Stephen’s friendship with Carrie, who is also living with chronic fatigue was a particularly beautiful relationship and their connection and mutual respect was so well articulated. It’s in these relationships between all of the characters that the novel succeeds. So many moments that were funny, deeply moving, and life affirming. I felt this novel was less about making people understand what living with chronic fatigue must be like and more about being a story that people who do live with it can relate to, and I honestly loved it for that.

Where this novel fell down for me is in the actual writing. It’s just not very well written, and hand in hand with this, it’s not very well edited either. It waffles and winds about and goes off on tangents about God and music for pages and pages, and really, I felt at times like I was reading a first draft. It had a distinct feeling of ‘this is written by somebody famous so he can write what he likes’ about it. I tired of it at times, to be honest, and there was a fair bit of skimming over in certain sections. I think it could have been 100 pages less and far tighter for a good edit and then it would have been a 4.5 star read for me instead of a generously bestowed 3.5 stars.

[Josie Ingall]

I unfortunately think I am going to give up on this due to its sucking. I love you, Stuart. I am sorry your book sucks

[jess .・✫ . ★ ゜ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up to 3!

i read this book as an intrigued belle & sebastian fan. it started off quite strong, especially for a first novel, with a lot to relate to about loneliness, isolation, poor mental and physical health, coming-of-age and more. the problem is that the style of writing is quite ramble-y and i couldn't understand in a lot of chapters why a certain point or tangent was being harped on when it bore no relevance to the story. i don't mind a novel being 350+ pages but absolutely did start to struggle in the second half of the book because i was rooting for the character due to the first half and wanting to know what was going to happen, only to be met with lots of bulky passages of the main character stephen's stream-of-conciousness rambles about a band he listens to, outfit he's wearing, or something mundane that happened to him years ago that has nothing to do with the 'now'. this aspect of the book was much like striking up a conversation with a stranger and growing quickly bored due to their misguided assumption that you will be interested in or need to know about their very specific and niche interests, while leaving out the details you actually would be interested in learning about them as a person. i just wish the book had more structure, direction and focus on narrative rather than what i believe unfortunately to be filler.

still love you though, stuart murdoch. your music is incredible <3

[saiju · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love this man DOWN but this was barely a novel. It felt like reading a transcript of something rambled on a cassette tape, especially with the incredibly sloppy editing and inexplicable shifts between tenses.

Also I do not understand how he can pack so much character depth and soul into three verses and a chorus but completely fails to do that to these people in 363 pages. It somehow feels so shallow? Like Stephen was a twee Patrick Bateman, if he was a hipster DJ, going on and on about the right bands and songs and clothes and Docs and the way his pants fall on his sneakers.

Eh. Still, I want the next installment where he tells me what was going on behind that one I'm Waking Up To Us live where Isobel falls to her knees because that still haunts me😌

[Alan Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this more than I did. Whilst there’s certainly bits of the book which showcase his turn of phrase, it’s on the whole, disappointingly messy as a novel.

He said that he didn’t know what it was meant to be when he started writing it, and that becomes fairly evident.

There’s great chapters that end abruptly. And tonnes of superfluous ones that serve little purpose.

Still adore him.

[Ruth Griggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now have a v lovely obsession with belle and sebastian

[Jill Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gentle breeze of a novel dealing with coming of age and chronic fatigue underpinned by a love of music. As I lived in Glasgow's west end in the late 80s, and was heavily into Scottish indie bands this resonated delightfully.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nostalgic, sweet, and more moving than I expected. Stuart Murdoch, lead singer of Belle and Sebastian, narrates the audiobook himself, and his Scottish accent (plus a bit of singing!) makes it extra special. Set in 1980s and 1990s Scotland and California, the story explores friendship, love, and the search for health and purpose. Murdoch writes about chronic illness (ME/CFS) with a lot of sensitivity and authenticity, and the journey from debilitating illness to slow recovery feels pretty autobiographical (Murdoch suffered from ME for 7 years). Whether you're into Belle and Sebastian or just love heartfelt stories about music and friendship, this is worth picking up. I was surprised by how much I loved it—it’s definitely a favorite this month! Don’t sleep on it.

[Brain Fernandez-Jurado · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book really pushed the limits of how much I like Belle & Sebastian.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

With Belle and Sebastian being a part of my life since the 1990s, courtesy of college radio and online messaging groups (way before Facebook!), I was eager to dive into Stuart's debut novel. As a dedicated fan, likely within their top 10% of devotees, I found the novel's coming-of-age themes and poignant storytelling to be particularly resonant. I also enjoyed listening to the songs mentioned in the book on Spotify, aligning my listening experience with Stephen's journey in the novel.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros and cons of wanting to write a book, when you are famous for something other than writing:

PRO: You will get a book deal without much bother. You are, in this case, Stuart Murdoch, lead singer of Belle and Sebastian. People will buy your book.
CON: People reading the book will expect it to be about the thing you're famous for. If it isn't they will likely be disappointed.

However, Nobody's Empire is actually very readable. It gently rambles around the story of Stephen - an ME sufferer living in Glasgow. We follow Stephen's journey as he struggles with his condition, meets others with ME and whimsically muses about the possibility of romance. So far, so Belle & Sebastian.

My problems with the book were:

1. It's titled "A novel" but we all know it's a Murdoch autobiography with the names changed. It *sometimes* feels like a novel but at other times doesn't. The latter is most obvious when the book digresses into long descriptions of 'Stephen's' favourite bands or meticulous descriptions of the clothes the bright young indie things who populate the book were wearing at any given time.

2. There's really nothing about B&S in here. Yes, we get little moments of Stephen starting to toy with song-writing but the book is really about his ME and how it affects his life. This is interesting, but...I couldn't help but hope the story would speed forward a few years and we'd see how this depressed young man would make it big and write all those wonderful songs. This criticism must be really annoying, but I think that's the cost of being brilliant at something - when you try something else, it's likely to be compared unfavourably.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the book for what it was, and it did make me think a lot about how I wish I'd lived abroad somewhere sunny. Maybe it's not too late...

[Hamish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading a novel by an established musician or other celebrity is always a risky affair; in all likelihood they scored a publishing contract exclusively based on something other than their literary ability. Now, granted, Murdoch is clearly one of the better pop music lyricists of the past thirty-or-so years and he’s clearly a bookish type, so there was a bit of a reason to be more optimistic than usual. Initially, this hope was dashed. The prose is dodgy and screams “this isn’t my day job!” And there’s that bizarre issue with tense, where he regularly switches from present to past tense. I think it’s supposed to imply that the novel is a first person diary (with current feelings in present tense and recent happenings in past tense), but this is never made clear, and instead it’s awkward and distracting and who was the editor on this thing?

But then after 100 pages or so all of this somehow stopped bothering me. It’s not much of a story (and it’s transparently autobiographical if you know anything about Murdoch, to the point where you wonder why he bothered using fictional names), but it’s also strangely involving and kind of sweet and honest. Some of it is that, aside from the ME thing, I relate to Murdoch so hard. I imagine most bookish, music-obsessed, introverted, vaguely socially awkward types do. I even got almost all of his music references! It made me nostalgic from my college days in San Francisco. I really enjoyed it. It’s got many, very obvious flaws, but there’s something quite good under all of that.

[Darren Lynch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ach, it was okay. A bit of a ramble at times, a bit of a meander at others, but overall I did enjoy it.

He talks about ME in great detail, which is a subject matter I didn’t really have any knowledge on - so that was good.

But it takes SO long to get going. The first half of the book is just him cutting about Glasgow, which I get is something that really happened - as it’s a semi autobiographical work based on Murdoch life - however, this doesn’t mean it wasn’t a bit boring.

The second half is pretty good as it immerses the reader in early 90s San Francisco and San Diego. Murdoch does this well as he’s able to draw from lived experience and I really enjoyed this section.

If I could give this book 3.5 stars I would. Not quite a 4 star book, not quite a 3. Read it if you get the chance but don’t go mental and drive down to your nearest book store to pick it up straight away.

[Linda]

I really wanted to love this book because I absolutely adore Belle & Sebastian but I just couldn't get into it.

I tried.

It didn't even help that it was narrated by Stuart Murdoch. The whole thing just rambled & rambled along & maybe my younger self might have gone along but time is short & there are so many books waiting for me to waste time with ones I'm not enjoying--especially ones that have lots of people who want to check it out. So back it went to hopefully someone who was overjoyed to get it.

[Adam Parrilli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m surely biased in this review as I love Belle and Sebastian, as well as several other Scottish bands. I’m also not a big fiction reader, but all this being said, what a lovely coming of age, travel, and friendship novel.

It seems that although this is a work of fiction the story borrows a lot from Mr Murdoch’s personal history. Recommended!!

[Anne Gillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story on many levels. It was an eye opener to read about ME and helped me develop a better understanding of my own child’s struggles simply to survive.
I made an extensive playlist of the songs mentioned and can’t wait to work my way through. It’s a big list!
Thanks for sharing, Stuart.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels like an extended Belle and Sebastian song - exactly what you’d expect from an (autobiographical) Stuart Murdoch novel. Not a lot in the way of plot, but a very comforting novel with a lot of nice prose and ideas to reflect on.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE this book. Cozy to me, a love letter to figuring life out, Glasgow, creativity and San Francisco.

[Peggysue Piedra · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.6 stars - a barely perceptible feather jangles along a fragrant breeze

[Aoife · Rating 4 out of 5]

the deep set yearning to live in san francisco is back with a vengeance

[Anna Bru · Rating 3 out of 5]

dnf around page 100