Quizlit’s Book of the Month October 2025 is the stunning debut novel Muckle Flugga from prize-winning Scottish poet and author Michael Pedersen. A haunting island-set psychodrama as a mysterious lodger starts to come between a lighthouse keeper and his otherworldy son.
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Book of the Month October 2025
Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen
Life on a remote island is turned upside down by a stranger’s arrival, testing bonds of family and tradition and leaving a young dreamer’s future hanging in the balance.
It’s no ordinary existence on the rugged isle of Muckle Flugga. The elements run riot and the very rocks that shape the place begin to shift under their influence. The only human inhabitants are the lighthouse keeper, known as The Father, and his otherworldly son, Ouse. Them, and the occasional lodger to keep the wolf from the door.
When one of those lodgers – Firth, a chaotic writer – arrives from Edinburgh, the limits of the world the keeper and his son cling to begin to crumble. A tug of war ensues between Firth and the lighthouse keeper for Ouse’s affections – and his future. As old and new ways collide, and life-changing decisions loom, what will the tides leave standing in their wake?
‘A fever dream of a book, melding myth and magic to the monumental landscape of Scotland.’
— Ian Rankin
‘Muckle Flugga dazzles with narrative originality, succulent prose, technicolor scenes, and high-definition characters. I’ve never been so in love with a work of fiction.’
— Grace Tame
‘A beautiful and fascinating tale woven by the ultimate word maverick Michael Pedersen.’
— Russell Tovey
‘A quirky and original debut that sizzles with scintillating prose.’
— Bernardine Evaristo
Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning Scottish poet and author, the Writer in Residence at The University of Edinburgh and the current Edinburgh Makar (Poet Laureate). He’s published three acclaimed collections of poetry, his most recent, The Cat Prince & Other Poems, won Best Poetry 2023 at the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards. His prose debut, Boy Friends, was published by Faber & Faber in 2022 to rave reviews and was a Sunday Times Critics Choice. Pedersen has been shortlisted for the Forward Prizes Poetry and the Saltire Scottish National Book Awards, and has won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship.
Also by this Author
Oyster
From Grez-sur-Loing and festive nights to sizzling summers stretched out in the Meadows and Portobello, Michael Pedersen’s unique brand of poetry captures a debauchery and a disputation of characters, narrated with an intense honesty and a love of language that is playful, powerful and penetrative; he vividly illuminates scenes with an energy that is both witty, humourous but also deeply intelligent. Oyster is iced, spiced, baked and beaming for your pleasure.
Oyster features bespoke illustrations from Frightened Rabbit lead singer and songwriter Scott Hutchison.
Boy Friends
In 2018 poet and author Michael Pedersen lost a cherished friend, Scott Hutchison, soon after their collective voyage into the landscape of the Scottish Highlands. Just weeks later, Michael began to write to him.
As he confronts the bewildering process of grief, what starts as a love letter to one magical, coruscating human soon becomes a paean to all the gorgeous male friendships that have transformed his life.
If you enjoyed our Book of the Month October 2025, check out 5 Sensational New Books for October 2025