First edition  | |
| Author | Iain Banks | 
|---|---|
| Language | English | 
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company | 
Publication date  | 5 April 2012 | 
| Publication place | Scotland | 
| Media type | Print (Hardback) | 
| Pages | 368 pp | 
| ISBN | 1408702509 | 
Stonemouth is a 2012 novel by Scottish author Iain Banks. The novel was published on 5 April 2012 by Little, Brown and Company and follows a man returning to a small seaport town after being forced to flee five years earlier. The Irish Times picked the book as one of their "Books to Read in 2012". [1]
Stewart Gilmour returns to Stonemouth, a fictional seaport town north of Aberdeen, for a funeral. It is five years since he ran away to London after a sexual indiscretion at a wedding. Stonemouth is controlled by two rival gangs, the Murstons and the MacAvetts, and Gilmour was engaged to a member of the former clan before he had to leave. [2]
Critical reception for Stonemouth was mostly positive. [3] [4] Some criticisms of the book included some of the references to modern technology being "unauthentic", [5] while praise for the novel centred on the plot's mystery. [6]
An adaptation for BBC Television was announced in 2014, starring Christian Cooke as Stewart Gilmour, with Peter Mullan, Sharon Small and Gary Lewis. Location filming [7] took place in Macduff, Aberdeenshire in November 2014. It premiered on 8 June 2015 on BBC One Scotland, and 11 June 2015 on BBC Two in the rest of the UK. [8]