And Other Stories announces today that it will be bringing back into print three classic novels by the Booker-winning Scottish author James Kelman.
Publisher Stefan Tobler has acquired exclusive English-language rights in UK, Commonwealth (ex. Canada) and Europe to James Kelman’s novels Kieron Smith, boy; A Chancer; and The Busconductor Hines from Cara Jones at Rogers, Coleridge & White. These will be published over successive years, starting in June 2026 with Kieron Smith, boy.
On its first publication in 2008, Kieron Smith, boy attracted widespread praise. In the Financial Times, Irvine Welsh called it ‘a magnificent and important novel’. In the Irish Times, Eileen Battersby called it one of the finest books published anywhere and a major artistic achievement written with passion, intelligence and Kelman’s pitch-perfect ear for speech as spoken.’ And in the New Yorker, James Wood called it James Kelman’s best novel so far.’
Stefan Tobler on the acquisitions:
Thanks to the lending library and enthusiasm of my Scottish colleague Jo Higgs, Jim Kelman’s writing has lit up my year. I can’t stop talking to everyone about it. Firstly, there’s just such a charm, rightness and humanity to the people and their relationships. And a fluidity, in the perspectives, the consciousness, that is incredible. And the language, so alive and nimble and true!
James Kelman on the acquisitions:
On And Other Stories: I recognised their enthusiasm as genuine, derived from their belief in the power of literature. I find it infectious. It aint common outside of the indie literary scene, not that I ever come upon. This is the area where writers aren’t afraid to see what they do as art, and remind people of its political and cultural significance. It’s generally associated with poetry. The indie scene is where I found a home for my prose fiction more than 50 years ago. Now in the UK with And Other Stories, as with PM Press in USA, it’s been a return to the roots for myself. It’s good to be among people who aren’t afraid to take on the challenge, aesthetic and otherwise.
About James Kelman:
James Kelman is a Scottish novelist, short story writer, and playwright. He was born in Glasgow in 1946 and left school in 1961, moving around and passing through Los Angeles for a brief period in the mid-1960s then in various jobs in various places in England. He started writing at the age of twenty-one: ramblings, musings, sundry phantasmagoria, stories, whatever.
Kelman’s literary awards include the Cheltenham Prize for Literature for Greyhound for Breakfast (1987), the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for A Disaffection (1989) and the Booker Prize for How Late It Was, How Late (1994).
About Kieron Smith, boy:
Rejected by his brother and largely ignored by his parents, Kieron Smith finds comfort – and endless stories – in the home of his much-loved grandparents. But when his family move to a new housing scheme on the outskirts of Glasgow, a world away from the close community of the tenements, Kieron struggles to find a way to adapt to his new life.
Kieron Smith, boy is a brilliant evocation of an urban childhood. Capturing the joys, frustrations, injustices, excitements, revels, battles, games, uncertainties, questions, lies, discoveries and sheer of wonder of boyhood, it is a story of one boy and every boy. It is James Kelman at his very best. First published by Hamish Hamilton in 2008.
About A Chancer:
Tammas is 20, a loner and a compulsive gambler. Unable to hold a job for long, his life revolves around Glasgow bars, home with his sister and brother-in-law, the dog track, betting shops, casinos and occasionally a day at the races. Sometimes Tammas wins, more often he loses, but betting gives him as good a chance as any of discovering what he really seeks from life since society offers him no prospect of a better or more fulfilling alternative. First published by Polygon in 1985.
About The Busconductor Hines:
Living in a bedsit, just coping with the boredom of being a busconductor, and fully aware that his plans to emigrate to Australia won’t come to anything, Robert Hines is a young Glaswegian leading a pretty drab life. There are compensations, however, in his wife and child, and his eccentric, anarchic imagination. Kelman provides a brilliantly executed, uncompromising slice of Glasgow life – an intelligent, funny and humane novel. First published by Polygon in 1984.