From the author of Poor Ghost comes a poignant road trip novel following two middle-aged brothers, Chris and Andy Fairley, as they attempt an unlikely musical comeback in Japan.
Chris and Andy Fairley couldn't be more opposite-Chris, an uptight, ever-pessimist, and Andy, a go-with-the-flow hopeful. Their glory days seemed long behind them since their moderate success as a folk-rock duo and their relationship with each other fizzled out in the mid-1980s. But when their hit song is unexpectedly chosen for a Japanese car commercial, the men are given one last shot to revive their fame and friendship.
They embark on a tour across Japan, but soon find their venues are far from glamorous: a wedding reception where they're asked to play their hit on repeat, a flower farm gift shop, a windy sculpture park, and a restaurant where customers catch their own fish. As tensions between the brothers rise and a strange reporter begins following them all around the country, the men aren't sure if the band or their relationship will survive. With echoes of Andrew Sean Greer's Less, The Fairley Brothers in Japan is a gently comic exploration of aging, family, and belonging. It's a tale of two brothers, not just hitting the road, but rediscovering themselves along the way.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"Very early in David Starkey's The Fairley Brothers in Japan, one of those brothers, Chris, 'had the warm feeling that nothing very bad could happen to him in Japan.' This, despite the fact that it's 2022, and he's there to meet his brother Andy for the reunion tour of their folk-rock duo, more than thirty years after their (humiliating) last performance. Chris's warm feeling proves, um, misleading, but if you are holding this book in your hands, you should savor the warm feeling that something very smart and funny, full of insight and earned wisdom, is about to happen to you." -H. L. Hix, author of Constellation
"David Starkey's The Fairley Brothers in Japan is a raucous, episodic novel provoking outright laughter, penetrating sadness, and wonder, often at the same time. It is sort of Don Quixote meets The Blues Brothers. But that description is both an exaggeration and an understatement. Thirty plus years after an early success as a folk/rock band in 80's America, the two brothers attempt a comeback in Japan. The story vividly explores the outrageous complexity of Japanese culture, the confluences of the international music scene, the irrationality of a collaborative creative process, but most importantly-the betrayals, conflicts, and undying love between two talented brothers. If you like a novel that's turn-the-page fun to read, yet complex psychologically and emotionally, then you're going to love The Fairley Brothers in Japan. Beautifully written, this is a must read." -Jim Peterson, author of The Sadness of Whirlwinds
"With The Fairley Brothers in Japan, David Starkey has given us a masterclass in novel writing, and he has managed this with a cast of characters that hasn't a whiff of charisma: The Fairley Brothers peaked in the 1980s and they have only been revived because their only hit single is featured in a Honda commercial which brings them to Japan. They would like to have the same effect on that island nation that Godzilla did, but their impact almost doesn't register on any available Richter scale. I loved both brothers because they're rendered with compassion, dark humor, and the essential knowledge that a real writer holds about the human condition: We really don't understand each other at all and the three most important words in any language are 'in spite of.'" -Lou Mathews, award-winning author of L.A. Breakdown, Shaky Town, and Hollywoodski
"David Starkey's The Fairley Brothers in Japan is the emotional and compelling journey of musician brothers Chris and Andy. The writing-sentence by sentence, scene by scene, page by page-is down-to-earth, graceful, and lyrical. In uniquely reimagining the road novel, Starkey powerfully forms The Fairley Brothers in Japan through song titles, song lyrics, and interviews with the folk-rock duo. Starkey's vivid and detailed images illuminate the brother's emotions while capturing the texture of Japan's landscape and culture. And the images and details are as economical, elegant, and evocative as a haiku. Or a song by the Fairley Brothers: 'well crafted and clear, like photographs that included just the right amount of details.' Or like the brothers 'winding through a huge cemetery crowded with polished granite pillars with gold lettering.' As the Fairley Brothers journey through their shared and conflicted memories and grief, their bonds of brotherly love, family, and music, the reader experiences their yearning for meaning and song so the circle will be unbroken." -Fred Arroyo, author of Sown in Earth: Essays of Memory and Belonging
"I love a good road trip novel and The Fairley Brothers in Japan is just that: an endearing story of two brothers' journey to reignite their youth, with an evocative musical backdrop. It's a gentle, compelling ride which drew me into their relationship and the Japanese culture. The sort of novel which stays with you for days after you finish it." -Ivan Wainewright, author of The Other Times of Caroline Tangent
"If you love the spirit of live music, the comeback, and family finding their way, you will love this book. David Starkey is a gifted, natural storyteller with a poet's attention to detail and hope. This book is captivating and thoroughly delightful." -Lee Herrick, California Poet Laureate and author of In Praise of Late Wonder: New and Selected Poems
"The Fairley Brothers' revival-musically, personally, and as siblings-through their tour across Japan beautifully captures the country's unique blend of enthusiasm, calmness, shyness, transience, and strict yet curious cultural rules. As a Japanese cultural psychologist, I was especially moved by how their journey echoes the Zen teaching that 'everything happens as it happens.'" -Keiko Ishii, Professor of Psychology, Nagoya University
"With his experience in Japan and background as a musician, David Starkey is well-equipped to take us on the road with Andy and Chris as they navigate the quirks of Japan, explore diverse locales, encounter new acquaintances, rekindle old sibling rivalries, and reconnect with their cultural roots in a quest for a musical comeback. As a resident of Japan for nearly three decades, I felt myself 'traveling along' and rooting for the brothers as they faced challenges and made their way from small-town Hokkaido to Kyoto." -Karen Lee Tawarayama, creator of the Kyoto Faces blog and co-editor of Structures of Kyoto
Praise for David Starkey's Poor Ghost
"As you read David Starkey's Poor Ghost, you'll be thinking deeply about how we got from Boston to QAnon, from Casey Kasem to Kyle Rittenhouse: what it all means to you, and what it says about us. But you won't notice you're thinking, because you'll be laughing too hard as Stacey the retired librarian knocks out knife-wielding Alvaro de Campos with a jug of rose to keep him from killing you in your own backyard while other Halloween-costumed fans of the aging rock band whose plane crashed there a while back livestream the fracas. By the time you realize how involved you are in the deepening mystery, it will be too late to get out." -H. L. Hix, author of Legible Heavens and The Death of H. L. Hix
"Poor Ghost opens with a bang and a fire that chars a shattered Cessna and a towering pine tree. It ends with another bang from an exploding brushfire that consumes a massive 70 acres...In between, this highly original novel-unlike any I've ever read-shifts among second-person revelations, text exchanges, rock magazine interviews, news articles, and government reports, exploring the ghosts of those departed and those about to be. There's an invasion of groupies, lunatic murderers, a missing dog, and the mystery of what caused the plane crash. David Starkey makes it all meaningful, bringing the dead to life and offering rich, inventive entertainment." -Walter Cummins, author of Where We Live and Seeking Authenticity
"Poor Ghost is an examination of how we deal with loss and change and a tribute to the best band that never was, set in the confusing time of COVID lockdown. I appreciate David Starkey's improvisations on rock history, but I am most touched by his portrayal of the slow dance of grief." -Glen Phillips, Singer/Songwriter (Toad the Wet Sprocket)
"From its riveting opening through the wonderfully imaginative unfolding of its narrative, Poor Ghost is a lively hopscotch of a novel, compelling, deep and powerful."-T.C. Boyle, author of Blue Skies
"Poor Ghost is straight-up beautiful. The daily chaos of the twenty-first century collides with the narrator's dark and private emptiness, and somehow Starkey does all of this without a trace of irony or cynicism. I'll say it again: beautiful. I bloody loved it." -Craig Clevenger, author of The Contortionist's Handbook and Mother Howl
"What makes a band great? Dying in a fiery plane crash? Legions of fans who just won't let them go? Poor Ghost is all this and more. [The book is] a story of deep human connections, of music and love and loss. From the first blast of power chords to its heart-wrenching finale, this is the great rock and roll novel you've been waiting for." -Glenn Dixon, author of Bootleg Stardust
"An inventive and ethereal mystery... Poor Ghost is whip-smart and authentic about how we manufacture sentimentality in our artificial, internet lives.... The church of the weird has rarely been written about with more pathos and indeed gallows humor." -Craig Campbell, Louder Than War
"David Starkey is a very clever and talented writer... the more I read about the music of the band Poor Ghost, the more I kept wishing that they had been an actual real band."-Plethora of Pop
David Starkey is the author of the widely acclaimed novel, Poor Ghost, published by Keylight in 2024. In addition to writing fiction, he has published twelve books of poetry, most recently The Moon Shall Not Give Her Light (Vine Leaves Press, 2025) and You, Caravaggio (Pine Row Press, 2024). The Founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at Santa Barbara City College and the Publisher and Co-editor of Gunpowder Press, he is also the author of Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief (4th edition, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2021), which for many years has been one of the most popular introductory textbooks for college creative writing courses. With drummer Eric Prothero, he records and performs as Falstaff Riley. You can learn more about David and his work at davidstarkey.net.
