The Ruins

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We meet in the wings of Bristol’s O2 Academy, at the tail end of Suede’s latest UK tour. Osman is imposingly tall and the room is comically small, but this is the world that he knows; his home for the next 90 minutes. The Ghost Theatre, he explains, was partly written on the road. “Touring is absolutely brilliant for writing. People always say: ‘How do you find the time to do both?’ But I don’t start work until nine at night – the rest of the day I’m sitting in the hotel or in places like this. What else am I going to do but write?” I always thought music seemed the pinnacle of human existence. But as I get older, books become more important We like the same things. We started the band because we both like theatrical, emotional, violent music and that hasn’t changed. It's really strange because…I’ve been playing music a long time for we were successful. And I’d loved writing, I’d loved playing. The moment when it becomes something is really the first time when you play in front of the crowd. Is the first time you’re playing for the strangers. We’ve been playing for a long time and we played for friends, we played for like five people in pubs. And I thought we were really good. I was proud of the songs and everything. It was until the first time when you look and see hundred of people you don’t know, who have been moved by the songs. That’s the moment when you suddenly go “Oh, alright! This is why I’m doing it!”. Fantastic debut novel. Magical, surreal, disturbing. Reminded me in places of early Iain Banks and DBC Pierre”— John Niven To a certain point, writing a novel or a short story is similar to writing a song. In a sense that you basically have the same set of goals. With the exception that there are other people involved in the process. What was the moment, when you really got the strong sense of what you’ve been doing as musician and how much did these things affect your personality ?

This is how we are introduced to Adam. But in the second paragraph, it becomes clear that he is talking about a model land, village is too small a word for it. Umbrage, as his land is called, is Adams obsession, it has working traffic lights and cable cars, clouds provided by a dry ice machine, everything engineered in miniature, with Adam playing God, inflicting occasional disasters on his creation. With echoes of Performance, The Talented Mr Ripley and Mulholland Drive, The Ruins delves into the dark heart of fame: magic, music and murder. Adam Kussgarten is something of a recluse. He lives, alone in a flat, surrounded by his model of Umbrage. Umbrage is his life work, he's been working on it for over thirty years. It has taken over his flat and is precision built; it may not be a real world, but it's Adam's world. England on Fire: A Visual Journey through Albion's Psychic Landscape". Watkins Publishing . Retrieved 27 May 2022.

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The Ruins is an intriguing and beautifully-written tale of two brothers, filled with music and danger. But at its heart this is a novel about being restless and lonely; about how the inability to create something transient leads to a silent despair and the desire to be someone else." - Mariana Enriquez, author of Things We Lost in the Fire There's one theme that runs throughout the story, and that is of identity. The author makes us question lots of issues around how we present ourselves; how we hide our inner self and how we can persuade others to accept what we want to be, instead of who we really are. One of them dies and the other has to find out what happened, and is faced with the option of taking over his brother’s life. If I was being lazy, I might think you were Brandon and your brother Richard was Adam… I treasure it more. First time around, you’re so young that you think it’ll last forever but now I’m aware these things are fragile and it could end tomorrow. It’s an amazing thing to do with your life. How much of a relief will it be to tour again? But I shouldn’t sulk. I can only recommend this book to anyone who, like me, is daydreaming about concerts, an exciting life, London and a beautiful story that makes you laugh out loud at times. An ideal Desert Island Disk Ful Stop

The Ruins (brilliant title) centres on Adam whose estranged musician brother, Brandon, is murdered. Investigating why, Adam gets drawn into Brandon’s murky world. How did you get the concept itself and what was the start of the novel ? Doesn’t it feel like a solo-creativity ? In a creative sense.

'I’m always writing short stories...'

The character of Adam reminds me a bit of the character of Andrew in Something to Live For– they are both loners, both building their own fantasy worlds at home and both in love with an unattainable woman. The Ruins is a much darker and heavier book than Something to Live For though. There is also a section of The Ruins which reminds me of The Goldfinch, which is always a good things, as The Goldfinch is one of my favourite books ever. If you are interested in music, there is plenty of insight into the music industry. Thedebut from Suede founding member and bassist Mat Osman is an altered state of a novel, mixingthecrime of LA noir,theambient cityscapes of JG Ballard and dark language games of Thomas Pynchon, all imbued with a sensitivity tothemagical – and powerful – properties of making and listening to music.”— George Chesterton, GQ