Nick Cave is publishing a memoir on life in the wake of his son Arthur’s sudden death in 2015.
Faith, Hope And Carnage is pieced together from 40 hours of interviews with the journalist Sean O’Hagan, a longtime friend of Cave. It’s said to detail "Cave’s inner life over the last six years," and offer "a meditation on big ideas including, faith, art, music, grief and much more."
"This is the first interview I’ve given in years," Cave says. "It’s over 40 hours long. That should do me for the duration, I think." He adds that it was "a strange, anchoring pleasure to talk to Sean O’Hagan through these uncertain times."
O’Hagan says that the book takes in "intimate and often surprising conversations in which Nick Cave talks honestly about his life, his music and the dramatic transformation of both, wrought by personal tragedy. Arranged around a series of themes — including songwriting, grief, creativity, collaboration, catastrophe, defiance and mortality — it provides deep insight into the singular mind of one of the most original and challenging artists of our time, as well as exploring the complex dynamic between faith and doubt that underpins his work."
Cave’s son died, aged 15, in 2015 after falling from a cliff, having experimented with LSD. Cave’s last two albums with the Bad Seeds, Skeleton Tree and Ghosteen, have both touched on Cave’s loss in some form.
Canongate / FSG will publish Faith, Hope And Carnage in autumn 2022.
