Indie rocker Colin Meloy is writing his first novel for adult readers, the Associated Press reports.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons will publish a novel by the Decemberists frontman, tentatively titled Cascadia, in the spring of 2025. The novel will follow Barnaby Chambers, a man who makes a living selling “discarded baby membrane tissue.”
Meloy studied creative writing at the University of Montana and brought literary influences to his band the Decemberists, which he co-founded in 2000 in Portland, Oregon. The indie-folk outfit released its first album, Castaways and Cutouts, in 2002 and scored a hit record in 2011 with The King Is Dead, which rose to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.
Meloy is the author of seven children’s books, including the Wildwood Chronicles series, illustrated by Carson Ellis, and Everyone’s Awake, illustrated by Shawn Harris. His most recent book for kids, The Stars Did Wander Darkling, was published last September; a critic for Kirkus called it “a fun read with a classic feel.” Meloy is the nephew of nature writer Ellen Meloy (Eating Stone) and the brother of author Maile Meloy (Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It).
In a statement to the AP, Meloy said, “This story, the story of Barnaby Chambers in a near-future Oregon wrecked by climate crises and hypercapitalism, is one I’ve wanted to tell for a very long time now.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
