Morrissey announced the publication of his first novel on his semi-official website True To You this week. The novel is to be titled “List of the Lost”, a title that could be taken from many of his albums.
Morrissey made a series of seminal albums with The Smiths as the band’s lead singer and lyricist as well as several as a solo artist. Many of the songs deal with human emotions and everyday experiences, far removed from the more glitzy side of materialistic pop music. Morrissey has charted with eleven Top 10 albums (plus nine with the Smiths). In addition, his songs have been recorded by David Bowie, Nancy Sinatra, Marianne Faithfull, Chrissie Hynde, Thelma Houston, My Chemical Romance and Christy Moore.
The book will be published by Penguin Books in September in U.K., Ireland, Australia, India, New Zealand and South Africa; U.S. and Canada details will be announced later. Little is known about the plot, other than it will be character-centric.
The novel comes two years after Morrissey published his autobiography (simply titled “Autobiography.”); this tome of self-reflection was a surprise hit, reaching number 1 on many book charts. The book, according to Billboard, sold 20,000 copies on the first day of its release.
Morrissey announced he was working on a novel back in January 2014, when he posted: “In 2013 I published my Autobiography and it has been more successful than any record I have ever released, so, yes, I am mid-way through my novel. I have my hopes.”
Although Morrissey continues to tour and release music, his disdain with the music industry was evident during a recent interview in the U.S. on the Larry King show. Here Morrissey opined: “It’s not really concerned with people who sing or people who play music. Because music appears to be dying and people have found other things to do, I think the major labels want to grab as much as they can as quickly as possible. Therefore, they watch those terrible talent things, those small children, and they sign them and they make quick money.”
