We are delighted to welcome John Niven to Waterstones Deansgate in celebration of his new novel, The Fathers.

Scalpel-sharp yet laced with compassion, this wry look at modern fatherhood from the author of Kill Your Friends finds the lives of two very different dads brought together by unexpected tragedy.

John is joined in conversation by Caitlin Moran. The pair will discuss his work and answer audience questions, followed by a signing.

About The Fathers

In a busy maternity ward, first-time father Dan meets Jada, a dad welcoming his fifth – no, sixth? – child into the world. Dan and Jada come from very different places: both called Glasgow. Dan is a successful TV writer with a townhouse in the West End and a shiny Tesla ready to drive his wife and baby home. Jada is a hustling, small-time criminal who is already planning how to separate Dan from some of the luxuries Jada has never been able to enjoy in his tiny flat in a Brutalist sixties council block.

Both men find that the birth of their sons has fired their ambitions. Dan plans to walk away from his saccharine TV success and finally knuckle down to writing that novel he always felt he had in him. While, for Jada, it’s the opportunity for one last get-rich-quick scheme – ripping off a local airport. When a tragedy occurs, their worlds are brought closer than either could ever have imagined – close enough that it could mean destruction for both of them . . .

About the author

JOHN NIVEN is the author of eleven novels, including Kill Your Friends, The Second Coming and Straight White Male. He has written a memoir, O Brother, and as a screenwriter his credits include The Trip, Kill Your Friends and How to Build a Girl.

Times columnist, screenwriter and author CAITLIN MORAN – that feminist who keeps wanging on about how she was home-educated in a council-house – also specialises in interviewing her dear friend John Niven at events like these, with a special interest in seeing if she can make him cry on stage.