Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch joins Cúirt for a conversation about his debut novel Nobody’s Empire. Set in early 1990s Glasgow, Stephen – music-loving romantic – emerges from a lengthy hospital stay diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, a little-understood disease that has robbed him of any prospects of work, social life or independent living. Finding that he has the ability to write songs, Stephen wakes to the possibility of a spiritual life beyond the everyday and leaves Glasgow in search of a cure in the mythic warmth of California. This book is life-affirming, funny, and heartwarming.