If New York is the city that never sleeps then, surely, it logically follows that Morrissey’s is the ego that never rests.
It should come as no surprise then that the man who in 2013 demanded his autobiography — indecipherably titled Autobiography — be published under the flag of Penguin Classics (a standard previously reserved for, well, literary classics) is now foisting a novel upon us as the latest spattering of his porcelain mindbowl.
Fansite True To You, which The Guardian refers to as the "nearest thing the singer has to an official mouthpiece" — a perplexing title given Morrissey himself is surely no less than 99.9% mouthpiece — seems to have the details, announcing:
"Morrissey’s first novel, List of the Lost, will be published by Penguin Books (UK) at the end of September. The book will be issued in softcover/paperback as a New Fiction title, and comes almost two years after Morrissey’s very successful Autobiography publication of October 2013. Penguin Books will confirm an on sale date within this coming week. List of the Lost will be available in the UK, Ireland, Australia, India, New Zealand and South Africa."
Having had success writing on what is well known to be his absolute favourite subject — the life and times of one Steven Patrick Morrissey — logistics aside, there’s no clue yet as to what the plot of the novel might be. Given his recent accusation that Barack Obama is "white on the inside", however, perhaps some sort of innovative reverse-birther narrative is on the cards.
