Nick Cave has announced a new memoir, Faith, Hope And Carnage, which covers the six years that followed the sudden and tragic death of his son Arthur in 2015.
The contents of the memoir will be based on over 40 hours of interviews with Cave conducted by long-time friend and journalist, Sean O’Hagan.
According to the synopsis, the book is “a meditation on big ideas including, faith, art, music, grief and much more.”
Cave spoke on the memoir in an official statement, saying “this is the first interview I’ve given in years. It’s over 40 hours long. That should do me for the duration, I think.” He says it was “a strange, anchoring pleasure to talk to Sean O’Hagan through these uncertain times.”
O’Hagan spoke on the nature of the text, calling the process “intimate”, adding that it contains “often surprising conversations in which Nick Cave talks honestly about his life, his music and the dramatic transformation of both, wrought by personal tragedy.
“Arranged around a series of themes—including songwriting, grief, creativity, collaboration, catastrophe, defiance and mortality—it provides deep insight into the singular mind of one of the most original and challenging artists of our time, as well as exploring the complex dynamic between faith and doubt that underpins his work.”
Cave’s son Arthur died in 2015 when he fell from a cliff while experimenting with the hallucinogenic drug LSD.
The memoir will be out in spring, 2022.
Earlier this week, Cave’s project Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds shared an unreleased track set to feature on the upcoming second instalment of their B-Sides & Rarities. Dubbed ‘Earthlings’, Cave described the track as “The finest track of the Ghosteen sessions.”
