All We Have Is The Story: Selected Interviews 1973-2022 selected A Best Non-fiction Books of 2024 by Product Magazine UK
All We Have Is The Story: Selected Interviews 1973-2022 by James Kelman, published by PM Press
Best known for his fiction, both novels and short stories, long term Kelman readers will know that his essays and other non-fiction are just as essential, and this latest collection of interviews is no different. Spanning almost 50 years, the range of interviewers reads like a Who’s Who of literary luminaries, including Duncan McLean, Kirsty McNeill, Jeff Torrington, Michael Gardiner, Rosemary Goring, Scott Hames, and Brian Hamill. Long form interviews such as these are all too rare today, and to get such insight into one of Scotland’s greatest ever writers – that is even rarer. While Kelman seems to be ignored by many who should know better in his homeland – his lifetime achievement award at this year’s Saltire Society Awards better late than never – and with much of his back catalogue ludicrously out of print in the UK, we should be incredibly grateful to American publishers PM Press for giving James Kelman a literary home, publishing his recent work including the 2022 novel God’s Teeth and Other Phenomena. If you don’t know the work of Kelman, then this is quite the introduction.
