Waterstones Liverpool welcomes Michael Bracewell

We are delighted to welcome Michael Bracewell to the store to discuss his sublime new book The Smiths - A Novella
I am sure that what I remember is not necessarily what actually happened, but I can only write what I remember.
Wildly inventive and magnificently surreal, The Smiths: A Novella recounts the impact of an unconventional pop group from Manchester on one man's life. Taking the form of a flâneuring journey through the landscape of memory, our anonymous protagonist is accompanied by the iconic French actress Carole Bouquet, who becomes his guide and interlocutor, asking about his life during the years The Smiths were together and the profound effect of their music upon him.

As the unlikely couple perambulate from the old Selfridge Hotel to West Hollywood by way of a park bench in Cavendish Square, their conversation interrogates and celebrates the joys of outlandish pop genius, the zealous dedication of fans and the cult of outsider disaffection given uproarious voice. As such, this is not a book about The Smiths but one that emerges from their music, their emotional register and their literary resonance.

Michael Bracewell's novella-cum-fairy tale is at once deeply romantic and laced with comedy - not unlike the band themselves - and perhaps (in fictional form) the most astute and celebratory portrait of The Smiths to date.

Michael Bracewell is the author of seven novels and four works of non-fiction, including: Perfect Tense, Re-make/Re-model: The Art School Roots of Roxy Music, The Rise of David Bowie (with Mick Rock and Barney Hoskyns), Modern World: The Art of Richard Hamilton and Souvenir. His writing is included in The Faber Book of Pop (Ed Jon Savage and Hanif Kureishi) and his selected writings on visual art were published in The Space Between (Ed Doro Globus). His most recent book, Unfinished Business (2023) is a sequel to his novel The Conclave (1992).

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